Existents
An existent is anything that exists: an entity, an attribute of an entity, an action, or a relationship. Objectivism uses the term as the widest classification available beneath the axiom of existence, which lets a theory of concepts begin from what is there without first committing to a claim about which kinds of things are ultimately real.
“An existent is something that exists, be it a thing, an attribute or an action.”
~ Ayn Rand, "Cognition and Measurement", Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology
Why the term is needed
"Entity" is narrower: a table is an entity, but its shape, its colour and its falling over are not. Each of those exists, each can be perceived, and each can be conceptualised. A word was needed that covers all of them without ranking them, and "existent" is it.
That neutrality does real work. A theory that started from "entity" would have to settle in advance whether attributes and actions are as real as things, which is exactly the question that has kept metaphysics busy for two millennia. Starting from "existent" lets concept formation be described first, and the relations among the kinds sorted out afterwards.
Objectivism does hold a position on those relations: entities are metaphysically primary. An attribute is an attribute of something, an action is something an entity does, and neither is found floating free. Treating an attribute as though it were an independent thing is the error behind intrinsicist theories of universals and behind reifying an absence into an entity. See Identity and Causality.
Existent and unit
The two terms are often confused, and the difference is the hinge of the epistemology.
- An existent is what it is regardless of anyone's awareness of it.
- A unit is an existent regarded as a separate member of a group of two or more similar members — the same thing, considered in a relationship that a consciousness has picked out.
Nothing is added to the world when an existent is treated as a unit. What is added is a way of holding it. See Unit and Objectivity.
Common misunderstandings
- That "existent" means physical object. It does not. An emotion, a decision and a number of things all exist, and all are existents. What Objectivism denies is that any of them exists apart from the entities they belong to.
- That calling something an existent settles what it is. It settles only that it is. Whether a given alleged existent is an entity, an attribute or nothing at all is a separate question, answered by evidence.
- That existence is a property things have. Existence is not an attribute added to a thing; it is the fact that there is a thing to have attributes. See Axioms and Existence.
See also
- Existence · Identity · Axioms · Metaphysics
- Unit · Concept · Concept formation · Measurement
- Perception · Consciousness · Objectivity
- Primacy of Existence · Causality · Reification of Zero
Discussion
- How is existence meaningful as an axiom?
- Attribute vs quality
- Objectivist epistemology and metaphysics
References
- Rand, Ayn. "Cognition and Measurement" and "Axiomatic Concepts", Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. The Objectivist, 1967.
- Peikoff, Leonard. Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, chapter 1.
| Metaphysics Topics |
|---|
| Axioms: Existence, Consciousness, Identity • Corollary: Causality, Primacy of Existence |
| Reality: Primacy of Existence, Existents, the Metaphysically Given versus the Man Made |