inexistence

See also: in existence

English

Etymology

in- +‎ existence

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪnɪɡˈzɪstəns/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

inexistence (usually uncountable, plural inexistences)

1. The state of not being, not existing, or not being perceptible.
   • 1648, Robert Boyle, Seraphic Love‎^[1], Kessinger, published 1997, →ISBN, page 57:

     Our inexistence indeed was a condition, wherein nothing in us was capable of being a motive of God's love; but our enmity proceeded further, and made us worthy of his detestation; […]

   • 1941, Giuseppe di Gioia, Swift are the Shadows‎^[2], page 78:

     In order to prove the inexistence of God, he challenged Him to strike him down in five minutes while timing himself with a watch.

   • 2007, Jacques-Alain Miller, “The Sinthome, A Mixture of Symptom and Fantasy”, in The Later Lacan‎^[3], →ISBN, page 57:

     Axiomatics (namely, that everything that will be used for the purposes of a demonstration is explained) does nothing more than formalizing this wiping clean — in other words, inexistence is posed as the condition for necessity to emerge.

2. The state of existing in something
   • 1663, Isaac Barrow, “A Defence of the Blessed Trinity”, in The Theological Works of Isaac Barrow‎^[4], published 1830, page 188:

     that there is a mutual inexistence of one in all, and all in one; […]

   • 1854, Christopher Walton, Notes and Materials for an Adequate Biography of the Celebrated Divine and Theosopher: William Law‎^[5], page 207:

     She distinguished as to this, the inexistence in God from eternity, and the figurative manifestation in time.

   • 2005, Louis Dupre, The Enlightenment and the Intellectual Foundations of Modern Culture‎^[6], →ISBN, page 303:

     Berkeley's theory of the creature's permanent inexistence in God evoked a suspicion of pantheism.

3. That which exists within; a constituent.
   • 1768-1777, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued

     where could they find such receptacle for their inexistence

Usage notes

• In modern philosophical writing, this is chiefly used with the sense "nonexistence" as a literal translation or calque of a corresponding term in another European language, such as the German Inexistenz or the Spanish inexistencia.

Synonyms

• (not existing): nonexistence, absence, lack; See also Thesaurus:inexistence
• (existing within): inherence; See also Thesaurus:intrinsicality

Related terms

• inexistent

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

inexistence f (plural inexistences)

1. inexistence

Further reading

• “inexistence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.