Bob and Joe: An Improv

Alright, this is an add-lib and everyone gets to play. Make additions if you like or just watch it unfold. Whatever suits you. (I do not mean “Bob” as in the member Bob. I just wanted to use short names to speed things up.)

Try to stay on the subject. Don’t say some random shit and throw the rhythm off.


Bob: “X” does not exists.

Joe: What is it that you are claiming does not exist?

Bob: “X”.

Joe: Then how do you reference “X” in the statement while claiming that it does not exist?

Bob: I’m not claiming that “X” exists, I’m saying that it doesn’t.

Joe: If “X” does not exist, then it couldn’t exist for you to say it didn’t exist, and you could not make the statement.

Bob: I don’t understand.

Joe: Whatever it is that you are calling “X” must exist in order for you to doubt and make the claim that it doesn’t exist. If “X” truely didn’t exist then you couldn’t claim it didn’t exist because you would be refering to nothing in the first place.

Bob: Look, I’m saying that the idea doesn’t exist.

Joe: What’s the difference?

Bob: The difference is huge, dude! This rock right here does exist because I can sense it. The idea of “X” cannot be sensed, so that’s why it doesn’t exist.

Joe: That’s circular, Bob. You’re still not getting it. What makes your idea of “sense” any different than the idea of “X?” Is not the perception and experience of the “rock” just another idea? How do you decide what “sense” is?

Bob: I’m an Empiricist, didn’t you know?

Joe: How boring. I quit Empiricism years ago. Its like watching old people fuck. You can’t be serious.

Bob: Of course I’m serious. Anyway, back to “X.”

Joe: No. Explain your “Empiricism” first.

[Joe lights a cigarette]

Bob: Alright. Let’s designate “God” to “X.” I’m saying that “God” does not exist because it is an idea about something I cannot experience.

Joe: Explain, then, what kind of ‘experience’ provides for the ideation of the proposition: ““X” does not exist.” Saying that “X” has no empirical existence is not saying that “X” does not exist because, as I said earlier, you couldn’t pose the question. Furthermore, if what you consider “sense” is merely the presence to a belief that something does or does not exist, there isn’t much difference in an idea of a “rock” and an idea of “God.”

Bob: When I say “sense” I mean a physical reception of some stimulus. Anything more is a process of imagination. I can invent an imaginary concept in my head, such as a God or a munchkin, and refer to it as “X” when I say it doesn’t exist.

[continue]

Bob: Alright. Let’s designate “God” to “X.” I’m saying that “God” does not exist because it is an idea about something I cannot experience.

Sue: I suppose this means that Empiricism doesn’t exist.

Dunamis

Bob: Joe, you’ve misunderstood. “X does not exist” needs to be analyzed as a subject-predicate proposition. X means X, and “does not exist” is a characteristic of X. For X to exist it must be an atomic proper-noun which means it corresponds to an empiraclly verifiable object. Until it is a proper-noun we cannot consider its charateristics. Anything which is not a proper-noun is a general statement, and by definition, a general statement cannot correlate to a particular object – it is abstract.

Joe: So your saying it is without meaning to talk about X, because when we do so we don’t really mean X?

Bob: You’re getting warmer. We must look at the characteristics of what we mean by X (by itself) before we can attach the predicate. If we say, rather than X, or God, Atlantis – then, we must observe what Atlantis means. Since Atlantis is a proper-noun, it by definition is a city under water. To say “Atlantis exists” is to make a non-sensical and illogical, statement, because we have no justifable reason to attach the predicate. Atlantis can only come to be known to exist, to him or her, who see the city of Atlantis itself; and even more importantly, the city must correspond to the definition of Atlantis, or else it is something else.

Joe: But before it is verified, what is Atlantis? A mere symbological noun which can only come to be known if it is observed under the conditions set fourth by the definition?

Bob: That is it exactly.

Joe: So you’re taking Bertrand Russell’s position.

Bob: Yes, but the problem doesn’t end here. We can even go a step beyond with Wittgenstein, however, at the moment I am unable to present the position as adequately as I would like.

Sue: You guys are giving me a headache.

Bob: Yeah, for X to exist it must be an atomic proper-noun which means it corresponds to an empiraclly verifiable object.

Betty: Oh, you mean verified beyond the holism of our beliefs as denied to Empiricists by Quine?

Bob: Yes. Just like that, but more complicated, in fact so complicated that I just can’t explain it, but just complicated enough to prove that “x” does not exist.

Sue: Damn, that is pretty complicated.

Betty: Sure is Betty, Bob is quite a Man, he can get way complicated, if you just let him, the problem is he can’t quite verify his complication Empirically.

Sue: You mean his complication just doesn’t exist in a verifiable sense?

Betty: Yeah, kinda.

Sue: What good is is then?

Betty: Well Sue you just gotta believe in it, feel its power of complication.

Sue: You mean rhethorically.

Bob: Yeah rhetorically, but more effective than that.

Sue: Cool…I guess that means x doesn’t exist.

Bob: Damn right it doesn’t.

Sue: But does your argument?

Bob: Can’t you tell?

Dunamis