Knowing that Something Does Not Exist: Existence and Epistemic Logic

Authors

  • Emilio Gómez-Caminero Parejo Instituto de Lógica, Lenguaje e Información, Universidad de Sevilla

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22370/rhv2013iss1pp41-53

Keywords:

Existence, epistemic logic, intuition, possibilistic and realistic quantifiers

Abstract

In this paper we deal with a classical question of western philosophy: Is it possible to know that there are things which do not exist? We begin with a brief analysis of some fragments of Parmenides, and later we study whether these arguments are valid using three kinds of epistemic logic: a classical style epistemic logic, where axiom holds (see PDF), a free epistemic logic, where this axiom does not hold, and finally, we study Lenzen's proposal of using two kinds of quantifiers: possibilistic and realistic quantifiers. We conclude that the last last one is the closest to our intuition and a good way to deal with this kind of problem.

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Published

2013-05-30

How to Cite

Gómez-Caminero Parejo, E. (2013). Knowing that Something Does Not Exist: Existence and Epistemic Logic. Revista De Humanidades De Valparaíso, (1), 41–53. https://doi.org/10.22370/rhv2013iss1pp41-53

Issue

No. 1 (2013): No 1 (2013)

Section

Articles

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