| 释义 |
existence|ɛgˈzɪstəns|
Also 6 Sc. existens.
[a. OF. existence, ad. med.L. existentia, n. of state f. ex(s)istent-em (see existent), pr. pple. of ex(s)istĕre: see exist and -ence.]
The state of being existent.
†1. Actuality, reality. Obs.
(Opposed to apparence: the Fr. words often so occur in the Roman de la Rose.)
c1384Chaucer H. Fame i. 266 Allas what harme dothe Apparence Whan hit is fals in existence. c1400Rom. Rose 5552 To se Hym that is freend in existence From hym that is by apparence. 1430Lydg. Chron. Troy i. v, A deceyte is couertly yment..As it were sothe in very existence.
2. a. Being; the fact or state of existing; ‘actual possession of being’ (J.). in existence: as predicate = ‘extant’.
c1430Lydg. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 45 Thyng counterfetyd hath non existence. 1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 267 The coloures of faces, quantites of bodies, qualites of sawles, haue theire existence in man after the diuersite of heuyn. 1552Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 38 God allone is be himself; of his awin natural existens. 1665Glanvill Sceps. Sci. 20 Matter is not necessary to the Soul's existence. 1725Watts Logic iii. ii. §8 An Argument taken from the Nature or Existence of Things. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 462 Existence belongs solely to substances, and essence solely to qualities. 1816J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 585 The earth was the most consequential aggregate of matter in existence. 1818Jas. Mill Brit. India III. iv. ix. 298 It created some evils of the greatest magnitude which previously had no existence. 1856Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. I. ii. 56 These facts sufficiently proved the existence of some actual disease. 1871Alabaster Wheel of Law p. xxxvii, Buddhists..see more reason to lament existence than to be grateful for it.
b. Continued being; continuance in being.
1736Butler Anal. i. i. Wks. 1874 I. 17 We know not at all upon what the existence of our living powers depends. 1811Wellington in Gurw. Disp. VIII. 274 People who absolutely depend for their existence upon the continuance of His Royal Highness' protection. 1874Green Short Hist. viii. 492 The colony was now firmly established and the struggle for mere existence was over.
c. Continuance of being as a living creature; life. (Sometimes in disparaging sense: ‘a mere existence not worthy the name of life’.)
1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 169 Their famous æscalapius, seeing no more money, limited my life to five dayes more existence. 1825Landor in Four C. Eng. Lett. 441, I shall remember his [friendship] to the last hour of my existence. 1838De Morgan Ess. Probab. 223 [An annuity] to be paid at the end of the year in which the joint existence fails. 1860Baroness Bunsen in Hare Life II. v. 276 His existence of bodily ease and freshness. 1870Dickens E. Drood vii, We have had a wretched existence.
3. A mode or kind of existing.
a1763Shenstone Ess. (1765) 52 Such appears to me to be the true existence of apparitions. 1867M. Arnold Empedocles on Etna i. ii, Other existences there are, that clash with ours. 1878Browning La Saisiaz 28 New existence led by men and women new.
4. concr.
a. All that exists; the aggregate of being.
1751Harris Hermes Wks. (1841) 142 Existence may be considered as an universal genus. 1868Geo. Eliot Sp. Gipsy 51 All beauteous existence rests, yet wakes.
b. Something that exists; a being, an entity.
1605Timme Quersit. i. iii. 10 Things naturall are called properly naturall existences or beings. 1624Massinger Renegado v. ii, Prosper, thou Great Existence, my endeavours! a1754Fielding True Patriot Wks. 1775 IX. 329, I have heard of a man who believed there was no real existence in the world but himself. 1820Keats Hyperion ii. 337 When all the fair existences of heaven Came. 1846Mill Logic i. iii. §1 An enumeration of Existences, as the basis of Logic, did not escape the attention of the schoolmen. 1891C. R. Francis in Indian Mag. Sept. 459 There is no limit to the ever-increasing number of deified existences.
5. attrib., as existence-proposition, a proposition asserting existence, an existential proposition; existence-theorem (see quot. 1903).
1937Mind XLVI. 53 This is certainly intended to be or to contain an empirical existence-proposition. 1939Ibid. XLVIII. 144 Plato was at this time deeply concerned with the logic of existence-propositions. 1944M. Weitz in P. A. Schilpp Philos. B. Russell 86 An existence proposition is the traditional ‘I’ or ‘O’ proposition. For Russell it is a proposition which asserts the truth of at least one value of a propositional function; e.g., ‘Some men are brutal’.
1900J. Royce World & Indiv. I. v. 213 Modern Analysis, and the Theory of Functions, contain very many propositions of the class that are sometimes called ‘Existence-Theorems’. 1903B. Russell Princ. Math. lix. 497 The existence-theorems of mathematics—i.e. the proofs that the various classes defined are not null—are almost all obtained from Arithmetic. |