What does it mean to say something exists? What exactly is existence? How does it differ from non-existence?
Most of us have a common-sense notion of existence, and thus we have never really thought these questions through. But as with so many other things, we know what existence is until we are asked to define it! Admittedly I’ve never woken up at 4:00 in the morning in cold sweats trying to figure out what existence is and how it differs from non-existence, but it is fun to think about nonetheless.
What is existence, then? Does saying something exists mean it located in space and time? If so God could not exist. In fact, space and time themselves could not exist because space is not located in space, and time is not located in time.
Is existence defined by physicality? If so, what about numbers, relations, properties, sets, acts of knowing, intentions, motives? None of these are physical, and yet they clearly exist.
Is existence defined as whatever is created by God? Since God did not create Himself, He must not exist according to this definition. Furthermore, things such as logic, numbers, and relations are not created entities. They exist eternally in the mind of God as part of His rational nature. None of these definitions will work.
So what is existence? Existence could be said to be thatness. It’s that which makes a real difference in the world. It differs from non-existence in that existence exemplifies at least one property, while non-existence exemplifies no properties whatsoever. It might be said that existence is the entering into the exemplification relation. “Existence is either the belonging of some property or the being belonged to by a property.”1 Consider human existence. The fact that the property of being a human belongs to something and that something has this property belonging to it is what confers existence.
Existence can be had (in the case of God He has always had it), gained (in the case of everything but God and the concepts inherent to His rational mind), or lost (in the case of many material things), but it cannot be had in degree, gained in degree, or lost in degree. Coming-to-be or ceasing-to-be are not gradual processes like walking into a room, in which case there is a point at which you begin to enter, enter half-way, and then finally come to be in the room. Existence either is or it isn’t.
1 J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, 187-193, 202.
Thinking to Believe 
November 13, 2009 at 9:11 am
Interesting! I would have simply said “Existence is that that is”
For although something is iaginary (and therefore could be considered not real) the imagined concept exists. Therefore imaginary objects exist (not necasarily real though…)
Which then argues that all things exist. The question then becomes “What is real?”
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November 13, 2009 at 9:13 am
Apologies for my spelling in above post!
*imaginary, *necessarily
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November 13, 2009 at 10:44 am
I’m not so sure I would agree. In saying that an imaginary object exists but is not real, you are making a distinction between existence and reality. But I don’t see how such a distinction could be maintained. If something exists, it is real. I don’t consider imagined objects or propositions to be existent. Only the concept of the imagined object exists. So whether you are imagining a centaur, a dragon, or Santa Clause, all that exists in each case is your concept of such. And concepts have a positive reality.
Jason
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June 28, 2016 at 9:45 pm
Existence- That which is (something).
Is- That which equals (something).
In order for something to exist, it must equal AT LEAST something. Meaning that if something is not equal to itself, or is not itself, then it does not exist. A round quadrangle does not exist, because the round directly contradicts the quadrangle and vice versa. A quadrangle exists, because it makes “sense”, or rather it equals itself.
I included the word “thing” in my definition of existence, arguably. A thing is a concept. Everything and anything is a concept. Every thing. If it can be thought of, or even the idea of the idea is thought of, it is a concept. The concept of concepts is kind of like the genesis of the properties of a phenomena. All is a concept.
A reality is something that is present independent of one’s perception of it. An apple is a reality. Mathematics are a reality, for 2+2=4 whether you are alive or dead or asleep. Even your thoughts are a reality. But if your thinking of a flying pink hippopotamus with angel wings that breathes fire and poops glitter, the hippo (does exist), it is NOT real, but the thought of it is real.
And then there is material-ability. The only reason i dont say physicality, is because physical existences can be subjective. What is physical? Matter? Energy? Space? Time? Feelings? Colors? Motion? Force? Light? The absence of light? You see there is a lot of room for argument here, I personally think that almost everything is physical, except for truth itself, which is the eternal and inalterable foundation.
An apple is material. Your feelings are not, the chemicals that cause them are.
Lets not define things like existence and reality in ways that are personally customized and arbitrary. I did my best to get the real definition after a lot of research and if I weren’t to have liked it i would have scrapped the relevance of existence and recognized its value nevertheless. Does God exist? Yes. Does a giant flying space unicorn exist? Yes. ASKING IF THEY EXIST IS NOT ASKING IF THEY ARE REAL. All self-agreeing and definable concepts exists, everything else does not.
If you don’t like this definition of existence, you have an alternative. Realize that its definition is circular, and well if that is what you choose to accept then the idea of existence is entirely meaningless, relativistic, and subjective. It took a stretch, but i could justify self-equalization as a way out of the circular paradox. The best place for finding the best definitions i have personally found is Wiktionary, it is even more dynamic then Google definions and more straightforward then Wikipedia. Give it a try.
Thank you for your time.
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