Editing Existence (section)

==== Universalism ====
Universalists agree with Meinongians that existence is a property of individuals but deny there are nonexistent entities. Instead, universalists state existence is a universal property; all entities have it, meaning everything exists. One approach is to say existence is the same as self-identity. According to the [[law of identity]], every object is identical to itself or has the property of self-identity. This can be expressed in [[predicate logic]] as <math>\forall x (x=x)</math>.<ref name="auto5">{{harvnb|Casati|Fujikawa|loc=§2b. Universalism}}</ref>

An influential argument in favor of universalism is that the denial of the existence of something is contradictory. This conclusion follows from the premises that one can only deny the existence of something by referring to that entity and that one can only refer to entities that exist.<ref name="auto5"/>

Universalists have proposed different ways of interpreting negative singular existentials. According to one view, names of fictional entities like "Ronald McDonald" refer to [[abstract object]]s, which exist even though they do not exist in space and time. This means, when understood in a strict sense, all negative singular existentials are false, including the assertion that "Ronald McDonald does not exist". Universalists can interpret such sentences slightly differently in relation to the context. In everyday life, for example, people use sentences like "Ronald McDonald does not exist" to express the idea that Ronald McDonald does not exist as a concrete object, which is true.<ref>{{multiref |1={{harvnb|Nelson|2022|loc=§ 3. An Anti-Meinongian First-Order View}} |2={{harvnb|Casati|Fujikawa|loc=§2b. Universalism}} }}</ref> Another approach is to understand negative singular existentials as neither true nor false but [[Meaning (philosophy)|meaningless]] because their singular terms do not refer to anything.<ref>{{harvnb|Nelson|2022|loc=§ 3. An Anti-Meinongian First-Order View}}</ref>