| 释义 |
non-eˈxistence
[non- 1. Cf. Fr. non-existence.]
1. The condition of being non-existent; non-being, nonentity.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. vii. 27 The omission hereof affords some probability it was not used by the Ancients, but will not conclude the nonexistence thereof. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ iii. iii. §3 A possibility of non-existence, or annihilation in a creature. 1728Morgan Algiers I. vi. 175 Some I never heard of; tho' that is no Argument of their Non-Existence. 1807G. Chalmers Caledonia I. i. i. 3 Empires successively arose..and sunk into non-existence. 1854K. H. Digby Compitum VII. iii. 255 Books of dogmatic scepticism, and expositions of the non-existence of virtue and honour. 1968P. A. P. Moran Introd. Probability Theory vi. 269 The fact that this is not analytic at t = o corresponds to the non-existence of the moments in this case.
2. A non-existent thing. Also (indefinitely), that which has no existence.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. x. 20 A method of many Writers, which much depreciates the esteeme and value of miracles, that is, therewith to salve not onely reall verities, but also non-existences. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 249 They were all made ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων, from an antecedent Non-existence or Nothing brought forth into being. 1866J. Martineau Ess. I. 230 An existence without predicates is a non-existence. 1892J. Tait Mind in Matter (ed. 3) 74 Men are asked to believe that the whole dog and the whole pigeon..were produced from non-existence, by opportune additions to an invisible speck of living matter. |