Do abstract concepts actually exist?

[Pestilence]

I'm talking about things like honor, love, wisdom...etc. They are all intangible ideas in peoples' minds. But is that actually considered a state of existance?

[princesstaco]

Sure, I think they exist. But I guess it depends on your definition of 'exist'. I think concepts like honor and wisdom depend on human acknowledgement. They are human constructed terms used to describe a person's state of being. I don't think anything is intrinsically honorable, wise, etc; but if someone defines something as honor or love, why wouldn't it be so?



Speaking of abstract concepts, if someone were to disproove all of calculus I wouldn't be too upset.

[Dennis nist]

As an hobby historian I always become irritated when someone deemes someones history as "uncivilized" or "barbaric". I don't have a acctual problem with the word. I just don't like that these words somehow have become objective and written in stone somehow. Words that try to explain a state of being, I believe, people should be extra carefull around. What you percieve as "honor", for example, is set by parameters that you collected from uppbringing and culture, etc.

The problem is, your paremeters change all the time. So the deffinition of honor changes all the time(well, duh. Thats why they are called abstract ideas :P). Also, you never know all the facts. A man seems honorable now. But you don't know everything about that man. So you never will know exactly.

Before I become more confused then I am now. No. They do not exist or have a form of existance. they have no core and are formless.
Agh, english is not my first language. So my skills in explaining could mess up my reasoning.

[earthshine]

ideas are electrical impulses, stored in ur brain, like files on a com.

do the files exist? yes, as do ideas

[Yasha]

This kind of question won't have a real answer because it is too subjective and depends on the definition of "existence" which actually varies from one person to another.

But I can think of an analogy to this question. When you dig a hole in the ground, does the hole itself exist? The hole won't be there without the soil around it. Some may say that only the soil around it exists but the hole itself does not because it has no material basis at all. On the other hand, some may also argue that the hole exists because we can see it, measure it and even use it(to bury corpse or something).

The hole won't be there without the soil around it, just as the love, hatred and wisdom won't be there without the humans or other animals to show it. If you think the hole does exist, then so do the love, hatred and intelligence.

[Takagou]

^ what he said?

No really....im too lazy to put that in my own words, so yea. >_>!

[Leen]

Even if something is there and yet u dont believe that it's there, it's the same as that thing never exist. Period.

[Razgriez]

This kind of question won't have a real answer because it is too subjective and depends on the definition of "existence" which actually varies from one person to another.

But I can think of an analogy to this question. When you dig a hole in the ground, does the hole itself exist? The hole won't be there without the soil around it. Some may say that only the soil around it exists but the hole itself does not because it has no material basis at all. On the other hand, some may also argue that the hole exists because we can see it, measure it and even use it(to bury corpse or something).

The hole won't be there without the soil around it, just as the love, hatred and wisdom won't be there without the humans or other animals to show it. If you think the hole does exist, then so do the love, hatred and intelligence.

What he said. It maybe not "physically" exist through matter and space but through thought which shows to me it has some sort of existance.

Some people think differently and feel it must physically exist inorder for it to exist.

[dale2]

My Opinion

these things do not exist but are used to describe things.

Honour is a term for things that a person believes to be right and wisdom is used when someone says or does something that seems clever to someone.

These things can not exist because everybody has a different view on them and what they mean/are.

[Hangatýr]

Reality is a point of view. -shrugs-

[hesd]

The Law goes: What people think as real are real in their consequences.

[rimpelcut]

What is meant with non-inherent existence? Is this to say that the cup does not ultimately exist? - Not quite. - The cup exists, but like everything in this world, its existence depends on other phenomena. There is nothing in a cup that is inherent to that specific cup or to cups in general. Properties such as being hollow, spherical, cylindrical, or leak-proof are not intrinsic to cups. Other objects which are not cups have similar properties, as for example vases and glasses. The cup's properties and components are neither cups themselves nor do they imply cupness on their own. The material is not the cup. The shape is not the cup. The function is not the cup. Only all these aspects together make up the cup. Hence, we can say that for an object to be a cup we require a collection of specific conditions to exist. It depends on the combination of function, use, shape, base material, and the cup's other aspects. Only if all these conditions exist simultaneously does the mind impute cupness to the object. If one condition ceases to exist, for instance, if the cup's shape is altered by breaking it, the cup forfeits some or all of its cupness, because the object's function, its shape, as well as the imputation of cupness through perception is disrupted. The cup's existence thus depends on external circumstances. Its physical essence remains elusive.

We exist because there is only existence. Something can't come from nothing.
Words do not make something exist. Existence of a cup, existence of an idea, existence of a word, existence of society values and morals.
People tend to give an identity to a word by thinking: if something is difficult then I have to go whine and sobb and contract my muscles. Then difficult can be felt as stress or "difficult". Some cultures don't have the word difficult only the word: "takes a long time".

[Pestilence]

What is meant with non-inherent existence? Is this to say that the cup does not ultimately exist? - Not quite. - The cup exists, but like everything in this world, its existence depends on other phenomena. There is nothing in a cup that is inherent to that specific cup or to cups in general. Properties such as being hollow, spherical, cylindrical, or leak-proof are not intrinsic to cups. Other objects which are not cups have similar properties, as for example vases and glasses. The cup's properties and components are neither cups themselves nor do they imply cupness on their own. The material is not the cup. The shape is not the cup. The function is not the cup. Only all these aspects together make up the cup. Hence, we can say that for an object to be a cup we require a collection of specific conditions to exist. It depends on the combination of function, use, shape, base material, and the cup's other aspects. Only if all these conditions exist simultaneously does the mind impute cupness to the object. If one condition ceases to exist, for instance, if the cup's shape is altered by breaking it, the cup forfeits some or all of its cupness, because the object's function, its shape, as well as the imputation of cupness through perception is disrupted. The cup's existence thus depends on external circumstances. Its physical essence remains elusive.

We exist because there is only existence. Something can't come from nothing.
Words do not make something exist. Existence of a cup, existence of an idea, existence of a word, existence of society values and morals.
People tend to give an identity to a word by thinking: if something is difficult then I have to go whine and sobb and contract my muscles. Then difficult can be felt as stress or "difficult". Some cultures don't have the word difficult only the word: "takes a long time".

I can barely follow all that.:sweatdrop but I think that's a yes.(?) Anyway, here's my view on the matter. Ideas do not rely on anything to exist, they are independant of us. Think of how these things were discovered. It start with People acting a certain way because it is "honorful" to do so. It is more likely that people acted a way that was honorful, and that quality, which already existed, was given its name. If everyone's memories were erased, the concept would still be practiced, but under a different name.

[RockLee]

Of course it does, the awnser is simple.

Math is very abstract in the way it expresses ideas.

[Sorian]

If you think its real then it is real if you do not then it is not. Thus this question can't be answered.

[kapsi]

Yes, in a way (lol)

[rimpelcut]

if we talk about if it exists for real, it doesn't. iron is not existing because the things that make iron exist. those things don't exist because the things that that made those things exist and etc. A word discribes a phenomena whitch has certain karataristics. So the color black exists as a phenomena. But things like wisdom and love don't have such a precise definition. Love might be a feeling, love might be addiction, it can be both. Wisdom means knowledge but it als o means beeing intelligent. which do you mean? Even if those words have a certain standard to fit in then there are still allot of people that use it incorrectly because they don't know the karaktaristics of that objective thing. Honor is objective because it concerns feelings and those feelings are real because they are tensions or feelings in the body produces by real things. If you don't know what the object is then you can use the word in a wrong way making it seem to be a word with no meaning.