In Star Trek IV (Voyage Home (the one with the whales)) the question about someone's metaphysical law. Turns out that 'someone' is supposed to be a Vulcan philosopher. Is this consistent with what we know of Vulcans?

There are three words, rather simple words at that. At first glance it seems a simple obvious statement. There is a lot behind them.

Nothing: The complete lack of 'something'. The empty set isn't even nothing, for it is a set. Nothing is the complete lack of anything.

Unreal: Webster has three definitions for unreal:

  1. Not real or actual;
  2. imaginary; fanciful; [illusory; fantastic.
  3. lacking truth; not genuine; false; artificial.

Exists: What is existence and non-existence? Plato held that Forms existed, and much of his philosophy revolves around the form of Justice. To Plato, these forms were real. Draw a circle. This is not a real circle, there are imperfections in it; not all points are equally distant from the center. Yet, when I say 'circle' you know what I mean even though there can be no such thing on earth. What common thing do you and I access when we talk of circles, triangles, shapes, numbers?

Plato held that these were forms and during certain parts of our life we had perfect access to these concepts and remember them. Webster defines 'exists' as "To have actual being; to have life or animation; to continue to be". One example that is given is 'Belief in magic still exists'; thus something as insubstantial as a belief in one person constitutes existence.

So, how could we prove that nothing unreal exists, show that the inverse of the sentence is not consistent. Logically, one would write 'Nothing unreal exists' as ~Ex(~Rx & Xx). There is not something that is not real and exists. So, the inverse of this would be Ex(~Rx & Xx) which translates to 'There is something that is not real and exists'.

Is there anything that is 'unreal' that exists? Lets take several things that potentially exist, and consider if they are 'unreal'.

  1. Beauty
  2. Justice
  3. a Circle
  4. Good
  5. Love

Do these things exist? Yes.
Are any of them considered to be unreal?
That is the crux of the matter.

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