A Standard of Existence

Introduction

The paper attempts to devise a standard for the purpose of deterring the existence or nonexistence of something. The paper firsts discusses the concept of existence in a philosophical context focusing on the theory of philosophical realism. It explains existence in various in relation to the philosophical realism covering the aspects of the philosophy of science, the history of philosophy, mathematical philosophy and analytic philosophy. The paper then devises a standard for specifically determining the existence or nonexistence of four items including a horse, a unicorn, the number "4" and a circle square. The paper concludes with a general idea about the concept of existence and its philosophical reality.

Discussion

Philosophical Realism

Philosophical realism is based on the position that reality exists independently of how well we know or understand it. For example, the properties of light or gravity have always existed; however, it is only lately that people relatively better understand it. Supporters of realism tend to believe that our individual perceptions of reality is only an approximation of truth, and new observations or processed better and newer theories bring us closer to understanding reality (Solomon, Martin & Higgins, pp 200 - 203).

In the philosophy of science is to distinguish between reality and perception is important and differentiates realism but two major philosophical currents of idealism , arguing that knowledge is the creation of the human mind and empiricism that considers that reality is everything we see with the senses (Solomon, Martin & Higgins, pp 222 - 223).

In the history of philosophy, the term realism was used on several different theories. In the context of medieval scholasticism, realism means the nominalism that the abstract concepts that correspond to the general conditions of language (or thought in general. In today's general philosophical use of the term realism means that there is a world of things that did not make the existence of a spirit who understands, and is usually contrasted with the idealism, though not necessarily because the position of the "thing" in the claim on the existence and independence can take a virtual or abstract object, for example some mathematical concept or quantity. So the philosophy of mathematics, the term realism identified with the term Platonism. In relatively modern philosophy the term realism is often associated with British philosopher Roy Bhaskar, a key supporter of the philosophical currents of critical realism (Solomon, Martin & Higgins, pp 210 - 222).

Realism, that is a realistic claim, it can take many different forms depending on the object to which it refers, as idealistic pragmatism, experiential realism, aesthetic realism, moral realism, legal realism, theological realism and so on. It is rare that anyone says on a realist subject matter and anti-realist to another. The most common form of realism if we have the position of "things", the claim that things exist independently of perceptions and ideas of the observer understands them, take the macroscopic physical objects and this claim seems obvious. But even for physical objects, at least on a microscopic level, quantum theory ...