What is Existence, Exactly?

I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE Does Batman exist? Not really—but proving he doesn't turns out to be a logical minefield. This episode tackles negative existentials: why saying "X doesn't exist" seems to require referring to X in the first place. We trace the debate from Russell's theory of descriptions, through Kripke's devastating critique in Naming and Necessity, to Meinong's radical claim that non-existent objects still populate our domain of discourse. Plus: null pointer exceptions as computer science's Meinongianism, why AI struggles with fictional facts, and why three competing theories—descriptivism, Meinongianism, and abstract realism—each come with a steep philosophical price tag. I hope you enjoy. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - The Batman Paradox 03:26 - Russell’s Theory of Descriptions 06:36 - Kripke’s Rigid Designators 09:44 - Meinongian Domain Quantification 12:45 - Nuclear and Extra-Nuclear Properties 15:50 - Modal Descriptivism and AI 18:54 - Presentism and Temporal Ontology LINKS MENTIONED: Diana Pasulka [TOE]:    • A Scholar's Deep Dive Into the Metaphysics...   Why I Don't Buy The Simulation Hypothesis [TOE]:    • Why I Don't Buy the Simulation Hypothesis   Elan Barenholtz [TOE]:    • Language Without Meaning: How LLMs Exposed...   Naming And Necessity [Book]: https://neuroself.wordpress.com/wp-co... Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0486404455?tag=... Critique Of Pure Reason [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0140447474?tag=... The Interpretations Of Quantum Mechanics In 5 Minutes [Article]: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/... Alexius Meinong: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/me... On Denoting [Paper]: https://www.uvm.edu/~lderosse/courses... Graham Priest [TOE]:    • Graham Priest: Logic, Nothingness, Paradox...   Nonexistent Objects [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0300024045?tag=... Abstract Objects [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/9027714746?tag=... Noam Chomsky [TOE]:    • Noam Chomsky: Retrocausality, Husserl, & K...   John Vervaeke [TOE]:    • God, Infinity, The Sacred, Prayer, Relatio...   Presentism: https://iep.utm.edu/time/ Joscha Bach [TOE]:    • Joscha Bach: Time, Simulation Hypothesis, ...   Existence [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1107625262?tag=... FOLLOW: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b9... Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/su... Twitter:   / toewithcurt   Discord Invite:   / discord   Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_... Guests do not pay to appear. #science