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Question: Do non-tangible things really exist!?
A question I asked about the existance of the future was answered with an example "We cannot 'interact' physically with something like love, yet we know it exists!."
My question then, is whether we cause concepts to exist by understanding them!. That is, does "love" exist as a unified phenomenon BECAUSE we label it love!? Does our understanding of love cause chemical reactions to become a real phenomenon, a new phenomenon!?
On another level!. Does gravity exist!? Gravity is technically only a label for the interactions between things which do exist realistically!. Does our labelling of gravity cause the knowledge of these interactions to form together into a concept that truly exists!? If so, on what level does this concept exist as an entity!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Yes, they exist, as concepts!. This is the composition of the Platonic dualism of the sensible and intelligible worlds, and the Cartesian dualism of thinking and extended substances!.
Plato put their existence in the heavens; Aristotle put them "in the things themselves," as if someday science could extract them!.
But they are concepts of things which we cannot hold in our hands yet which we can know of!. Gravity, time, light--all things of this nature exist because we can see and measure the cause-and-effect relationship!. We can see the cause-and-effect relationship of love in a baby's face when he looks at his mother--but we can't bottle it!. We can measure it however!.
[See "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology", 44 for that explanation!. ]Www@QuestionHome@Com
Because society defines the color blue, or orange, is there proof that everyone see's it the same!? Infinity, does it exist!? If you had a space ship that could travel light years in a split second, how far could you go!? Is there an end to the universe!? If there is, what is on the other side!? Contradiction, isn't it!. I can't comprehend infinity, but I cant comprehend an end to it either!.
Yes, we label intangibles to try to understand them!. But after all is said and done!. We each experience them in a different way!.Www@QuestionHome@Com