We exist - but we are bound in variables.


  • I exist therefore I am but is this claim no more than to be 
  • be chained in a bound variable [Quine]

  • Some things (if they exist at all) are present only “in” other things: a smile, a haircut (product, not process), a hole …. Such things may be opposed to things that exist “in their own right”. Metaphysicians call the things that exist in their own right ‘substance
  • difficult to suppose that smiles or holes have this sort of determinate identity
  • Some of the classes into which we sort things are more comprehensive than others: all dogs are animals, but not all animals are dogs; all animals are living organisms, but not all living organisms are animals …. 






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