Graham Priest on noneism ("Towards Non-Being")

[Philip Thrift]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noneism

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/elementary-non-being/ :

To revive the view that some things don’t exist (known these days as “noneism”) and situate it as a plausible contender in current debates on existence is the aim of Graham Priest’s formidable 2005 book Towards Non-Being, which has now appeared in a significantly expanded second edition.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Towards_Non_being.html?id=X1S1DAAAQBAJ :

"Towards Non-Being presents an account of the semantics of intentional language--verbs such as 'believes', 'fears', 'seeks', 'imagines'. Graham Priest tackles problems concerning intentional states which are often brushed under the carpet in discussions of intentionality, such as their failure to be closed under deducibility. Priest's account draws on the work of the late Richard Routley (Sylvan), and proceeds in terms of objects that may be either existent or non-existent, at worlds that may be either possible or impossible. Since Russell, non-existent objects have had a bad press in Western philosophy; Priest mounts a full-scale defense. In the process, he offers an account of both fictional and mathematical objects as non-existent. The book will be of central interest to anyone who is concerned with intentionality in the philosophy of mind or philosophy of language, the metaphysics of existence and identity, the philosophy or fiction, the philosophy of mathematics, or cognitive representation in AI. This updated second edition adds ten new chapters to the original eight. These further develop the ideas of the first edition, reply to critics, and explore new areas of relevance. New topics covered include: conceivability, realism/antirealism concerning non-existent objects, self-deception, and the verb to be."

@philipthrift

[John Clark]

> he offers an account of both fictional and mathematical objects as non-existent.

If Mr. Priest is correct then the property he calls "existence" must be of no importance to anyone or anything, and the sane thing could be said for the distinction between fiction and non-fiction. It seems sorta silly to spend the time to write an entire book about something so trivial; it would be like spending a decade of your life so you could write the 500 page tome "The Life And Times Of Bozo The Clown".

 John K Clark

[Philip Thrift]

Does Bozo the Clown exist? 

@philipthrift