User:Phlsph7/Existence - Others

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Many of the individual sciences are concerned with the existence of particular types of entities and the laws governing them, such as physical things in physics and living entities in biology. The natural sciences employ a great variety of concepts to classify entities. They are known as natural kinds and include categories like protons, gold, and elephants. Scientific realists hold that these entities have mind-independent being while scientific anti-realists contend that the existence of these entities and categories is based on human perceptions, theories, or social constructs. A similar problem concerns the existence of social kinds, which are basic concepts used in the social sciences, including race, gender, and disability.

Existentialism is a school of thought that explores the nature of human existence. One of its key ideas is that existence precedes essence, a claim which expresses the notion that existence is more basic than essence and that the nature and purpose of human beings are not pregiven but develop in the process of living. According to this view, humans are thrown into a world that lacks preexistent intrinsic meaning. They have to determine for themselves what their purpose is and what meaning their life should have. Existentialists use this idea to focus on the role of freedom and responsibility in actively shaping one's life. Existentialism has influenced various reflections on the role of human existence in sociology. Existentialist sociology examines how humans experience the social world and construct reality. Existence theory is a relatively recent approach that focuses on the temporal aspect of existence in society and how the existential milestones that people aspire to influence their lives.

Mathematicians are often interested in the existence of certain mathematical objects. For example, number theorists ask how many prime numbers exist within a certain interval. The statement that at least one mathematical object matching a certain description exists is called an existence theorem. Metaphysicians of mathematics investigate whether mathematical objects exist not only in relation to mathematical axioms but also as part of the fundamental structure of reality. This position is affirmed by Platonists while nominalists hold that mathematical objects lack a more substantial form of existence, for instance, because they are only useful fictions.

Many debates in theology revolve around the question of whether there is a god and various arguments have been presented for and against God's existence. Cosmological arguments state that God must exist as the first cause to explain facts about the universe or the existence of the universe as a whole. Teleological arguments suggest that the only way to explain the order and complexity of the universe and human life is by reference to God as its intelligent designer. An influential argument against the existence of God relies on the problem of evil since it is not clear how evil could exist if there was an all-powerful, all-knowing, and benevolent God. Another argument points to the lack of concrete evidence for God's existence.