Recollections of My Nonexistence

Recollections of My Nonexistence
Author: Rebecca Solnit
Publisher:
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2020
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0593083334

An electric portrait of the artist as a young woman that asks how a writer finds her voice in a society that prefers women to be silent In Recollections of My Nonexistence, Rebecca Solnit describes her formation as a writer and as a feminist in 1980s San Francisco, in an atmosphere of gender violence on the street and throughout society and the exclusion of women from cultural arenas. She tells of being poor, hopeful, and adrift in the city that became her great teacher; of the small apartment that, when she was nineteen, became the home in which she transformed herself; of how punk rock gave form and voice to her own fury and explosive energy. Solnit recounts how she came to recognize the epidemic of violence against women around her, the street harassment that unsettled her, the trauma that changed her, and the authority figures who routinely disdained and disbelieved girls and women, including her. Looking back, she sees all these as consequences of the voicelessness that was and still is the ordinary condition of women, and how she contended with that while becoming a writer and a public voice for women's rights. She explores the forces that liberated her as a person and as a writer--books themselves, the gay men around her who offered other visions of what gender, family, and joy could be, and her eventual arrival in the spacious landscapes and overlooked conflicts of the American West. These influences taught her how to write in the way she has ever since, and gave her a voice that has resonated with and empowered many others.

Death and Nonexistence

Death and Nonexistence
Author: Palle Yourgrau
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2019-07-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0190247487

The dead are gone. They count for nothing. Yet, if we count the dead, their number is staggering. And they account for most of what is great about civilization. Compared to the greatness of the dead, the accomplishments of the living are paltry. Which is it then: are the dead still there to be counted or not? And if they are still there, where exactly is "there"? We are confronted with the ancient paradox of nonexistence bequeathed us by Parmenides. The mystery of death is the mystery of nonexistence. A successful attempt to provide a metaphysics of death, then, must resolve the paradox of nonexistence. That is the aim of this study. At the same time, the metaphysics of death, of ceasing to exist, must serve as an account of birth, of coming to exist; the primary thesis of this book is that this demands going beyond existence and nonexistence to include what underlies both, which one can call, following tradition, "being." The dead and the unborn are therefore objects that lack existence but not being. Nonexistent objects - not corpses, or skeletons, or memories, all of which are existent objects - are what are "there" to be counted when we count the dead.

The Nonexistent

The Nonexistent
Author: Anthony Everett
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2013-08-29
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0199674795

This book defends the common sense view that there are no such things as fictional people, places, and things. It then creates an argument against fictional realism by finding the faults and problems with the fictional realism argument.

Death and Nonexistence

Death and Nonexistence
Author: Palle Yourgrau
Publisher:
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2019
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0190247479

A successful attempt to provide a metaphysics of death must at the same time resolve the paradox of nonexistence--that there must be something "there" that fails to exist. This is the aim of Palle Yourgrau's Death and Nonexistence, which provides an ontology of death, i.e. of ceasing to exist, and at the same time, an ontology of birth, i.e. coming to exist. The primary thesis of this book is that this requires expanding one's ontology beyond existence and nonexistence to include what underlies both, namely, "being". The dead lack existence, but not being. Moreover, though they have forfeited their existence, they maintain their essence as human beings, just like the living.

The Metaphysics of Existence and Nonexistence

The Metaphysics of Existence and Nonexistence
Author: Matthew Davidson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2023-03-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1350344842

Are there nonexistent objects? Can we make sense of objects having properties without thinking that there are nonexistent objects? Is existence a predicate? Can we make sense of necessarily existing objects depending on God? Tackling these central questions, Matthew Davidson explores the metaphysics of existence and nonexistence. He presents an extended argument for independence actualism, a previously undefended view that objects can have properties in worlds and at times at which they do not exist. Among other unique points of discussion, Davidson considers the nature of actualism, arguments for and against serious actualism, the semantics of “exists” as a predicate, the merits of different sorts of Meinongian theories, and different views on which God might ground the existence of necessarily existing abstracta. The book offers a Lewisian-style argument for adopting independence actualism in that the view may be used to solve many problems in metaphysics, philosophy of language and philosophy of religion.

Eliminativism, Objects, and Persons

Eliminativism, Objects, and Persons
Author: Jiri Benovsky
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2018-09-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0429816618

In Eliminativism, Objects, and Persons, Jiri Benovsky defends the view that he doesn't exist. In this book, he also defends the view that this book itself doesn't exist. But this did not prevent him to write the book, and although in Benovsky's view you don't exist either, this does not prevent you to read it. Benovsky defends a brand of non-exceptionalist eliminativism. Some eliminativists, typically focusing on ordinary material objects such as chairs and hammers, make exceptions, for instance for blue whales (that is, living beings) or for persons (that is, conscious organisms). Benovsky takes one by one all types of allegedly existing objects like chairs, whales, and persons and shows that from the metaphysical point of view they are more trouble than they are worth—we are much better off without them. He thus defends an eliminativist view about ordinary objects as well as the 'no-Self' view, where he explores connections between metaphysics, phenomenology, and Buddhist thought. He then also considers the case of aesthetic objects, focusing on musical works and photographs, and shows that the claim of their non-existence solves the many problems that arise when one tries to find an appropriate ontological category for them, and that such an eliminativist view is more natural than what we might have thought. The arguments provided here are always topic-specific: each type of entity is given its own type of treatment, thus proving a varied and solid foundation for a generalized, non-exceptionalist, full-blown eliminativist worldview.

Nonbelief & Evil

Nonbelief & Evil
Author: Theodore M. Drange
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Total Pages: 403
Release: 2010-10-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1615927085

Can God's nonexistence be established? According to author Theodore M. Drange, it all depends on what is meant by "God". This book expands the frontiers of philosophy by exploring atheism, evil, and the nonexistence of God. Included are examinations of free-will, the possibility of an afterlife, arguments by theists, and more.

The Non-existence of God

The Non-existence of God
Author: Nicholas Everitt
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2004
Genre: Atheism
ISBN: 9780415301077

Arguments for the existence of God have taken many different forms over the centuries: in The Non-Existence of God, Everitt considers all the arguments and examines the role that reason and knowledge play in the debate over God's existence.

Nonexistence

Nonexistence
Author: Kenji Siratori
Publisher: Blazevox Books
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2006
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Fiction. "All the information in the universe, plus several bits from other dimensions that I'm still trying to sort out, have just been mainlined into my nervous system. The shards from a googleplex of infobits seem to be stuck in the part of my brain just above the pineal gland. Yes, I've just been reading Kenji Siratori again. This is my idea of a good time"--RU Sirius. Kenji Siratori (born 1975 March 13 in Chitose, Hokkaido, Japan) is a cyberpunk author known for experimental prose and nonlinear narrative. His first book, Blood Electric, was published in 2002. Blood Electric (Creation Books) was acclaimed by David Bowie. He is part of the bizarro movement in literature.

The Non-Existence of the Real World

The Non-Existence of the Real World
Author: Jan Westerhoff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2020-04-23
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192587188

Does the real world, defined as a world of objects that exist independent of human interests, concerns, and cognitive activities, really exist? Jan Westerhoff argues that we have good reason to believe it does not. His discussion considers four main facets of the idea of the real world, ranging from the existence of a separate external and internal world (comprising various mental states congregated around a self), to the existence of an ontological foundation that grounds the existence of all the entities in the world, and the existence of an ultimately true theory that provides a final account of all there is. As Westerhoff discusses the reasons for rejecting the postulation of an external world behind our representations, he asserts that the internal world is not as epistemically transparent as is usually assumed, and that there are good reasons for adopting an anti-foundational account of ontological dependence. Drawing on conclusions from the ancient Indian philosophical system of Madhyamaka Buddhism, Westerhoff defends his stance in a purely Western philosophical framework, and affirms that ontology, and philosophy more generally, need not be conceived as providing an ultimately true theory of the world.