A second order logic of existence

Abstract

A. N. Prior in [9] has suggested an approach towards a second order logic of existence where, following medieval logicians, we distinguish “between predicates (like ‘is red’, ‘is hard’, etc.) which entail existence, and predicates (like ‘is thought to be red’, ‘is thought of’, etc.) which do not.” Let us refer to attributes (including relational attributes) which are designated by the former kind of predicate as existence attributes, or for brevity, e-attributes.