To say the everything exists as an idea is only to say that those ideas exist. I understand your point, but this sloppy way of expressing it leads to metaphysics.
I guess to clarify, (maybe), it’s easier to account for our observations and intuitions and for the things that we know we don’t know if we grant everything existence, or possibility, then go on categorizing things as they properly should be based on the information that we have,(or don’t have) of them.
I really just pulled this out of my ass, and some of you can probably tell. Either way, I think it’s an interesting point. Deconstruct it if you want. I’m all ears.
Come on Faust. How about a little charitable interpretation?? I’ve already admitted that I pulled that out of my ass. Why not try and make the argument as strong as possible so we can find out where the real holes in it are?
Does the fire hydrant (as an idea or material object or whatever) exist before anyone invents it? If so, we have metaphysics. If not, the fire hydrant has not existed at a certain time and thus the argument is defeated.
A word or a symbol is just an idea, isn’t it? Even if they don’t have another idea, being that which they symbolize, attached to them, they are still just ideas.
I’d say everything exists either manifestly or potentially. A physical thing is manifest, a thought is potentially manifest, but equally as real.
Or perhaps we could say that everything that exists is either matter or form.
Or then again we could split things into form and idea. The form of a chair may exist, but If I don’t have the idea in my mind of ‘chair’ to apply to the form, is it a ‘chair’, or just a lump of matter? If I use a chair as a table, is it a table or a chair?
If it doesn’t exist, how can you think about it? Everything that can be thought exists in some manner. The flying sphagetti monster is a construct in your mind. You have constructed it out of things that exist. You cannot construct it out of something which does not exist, because that which does not exist cannot be thought.
This is the amazing thing about the mind, it can generate ‘potential’ realities. But this thing exists in my mind, and is that which exists in my mind not real?
You said that tangible reality was the only kind of reality, this is the comment that I objected to, for surely a mental construct is a reality. If I do a drawing of this monster, is that drawing real? But the monster itself is still not manifest. Clearly then, a ‘potential’ reality is a reality just like a manifest one is.
You might rightly point out that a thought of a monster and a monster itself are not the same. This is true. But both are ‘real’. The question rests on mind. How is something created in my mind? Do you believe that only what is material is real? If so, you believe that the things existing in thought are not material. What are they then?
…I’ve been at the Port this evening now I’ve just finished weight-training my legs: so I think I deserve more Port + it’s my birthday in just over an hour