Serious actualism and nonexistence

Christopher Masterman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Serious actualism is the view that it is metaphysically impossible for an entity to have a property, or stand in a relation, and not exist. Fine (1985) and Pollock (1985) influentially argue that this view is false. In short, there are properties like the property of nonexistence, and it is metaphysically possible that some entity both exemplifies such a property and does not exist. I argue that such arguments are indeed successful against the standard formulation of serious actualism. However, I also argue that we should distinguish a weaker formulation of serious actualism using the actualist distinction between truth in, and truth at, a possible world. This weaker formulation is then shown to be consistent with the existence and possible exemplification of properties like the property of nonexistence. I end with a novel argument for the truth of the weaker formulation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)658-674
Number of pages17
JournalAustralasian Journal of Philosophy
Volume102
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Mar 2024

Keywords

  • Serious actualism
  • Nonexistence
  • World-relative truth
  • Propositions
  • Properties
  • Modality

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Serious actualism and nonexistence'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this