If it is said, “Pegasus does not exist” what subject are we talking about?

George Bernard Shaw, the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, stated “We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.” For reasoned thought, there are three principles that must be accepted.

• For a thing to exist, there must be a sufficient explanation why it exists.
• For an event to occur, there must be sufficient explanation why it occurs.
• For a statement to be true, there must be sufficient explanation why it is true.

There also exists, within the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, and others, a concept which has come to be known as the “law of non-contradiction.” This idea can be described a few different ways:

• A thing cannot both exist and not exist at the same time;
• A statement cannot be both true and false;
• If A equals A then A cannot also equal not A.

Therefore, either Pegasus is a thing that exists or it is not. It cannot be both… or can it? In a reply to a previous blog comment I stated, “A thing cannot be and not be at the same time, but a thing can exist as a thing that does not exist. Actual truth, being composite, would hold within itself all that is both true and false.” So… how is that possible?
 
Let us look at the possibilities:

• Statement A is either true or false;
• Either statement A is true or a contradictory statement (not A) is true;
• Statement A is partially true and partially false with “not A” being partially true and partially false;
• Neither statement A is true nor is the contradictory statement (not A) true;

While we know Pegasus does not exist in the material world, and can say that “Pegasus exists” is a false statement, the converse, “Pegasus does not exist” is true, but to even be able to speak of a thing requires it to exist. Does it not? If it does not exist, how could you speak of it? To speak of a thing requires one to think of a thing; thought is measurable and has substance. Therefore, to speak or think of a thing gives it substance, even if the thing does not exist in the material and in actuality. Pegasus then does exist as a concept or idea, not as a thing that is material or spiritual, but a thing of pure intellect. Pegasus then would be a thing that exists as a thing that does not exist, a non-actuality. As an actuality, Pegasus does not exist, but as a non-actuality, Pegasus exists as an idea, thought, or fantasy.

Tags: philosophy, reasoning, thinking