I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOEDoes Batman exist? Not really—but proving he doesn't turns out to be a logical minefield. This episode tackles negative existentials: why saying "X doesn't exist" seems to require referring to X in the first place. We trace the debate from Russell's theory of descriptions, through Kripke's devastating critique in Naming and Necessity, to Meinong's radical claim that non-existent objects still populate our domain of discourse. Plus: null pointer exceptions as computer science's Meinongianism, why AI struggles with fictional facts, and why three competing theories—descriptivism, Meinongianism, and abstract realism—each come with a steep philosophical price tag. I hope you enjoy.TIMESTAMPS:- - - - - - - LINKS MENTIONED:- Diana Pasulka [TOE]: https://youtu.be/E5MuTHUbMUs- Why I Don't Buy The Simulation Hypothesis [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3_lBPMc6JRY- Elan Barenholtz [TOE]: https://youtu.be/A36OumnSrWY- Naming And Necessity [Book]: https://neuroself.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/naming-and-necessity-full-text.pdf- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0486404455?tag=toe08-20- Critique Of Pure Reason [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0140447474?tag=toe08-20- The Interpretations Of Quantum Mechanics In 5 Minutes [Article]: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/p/the-interpretations-of-quantum-mechanics- Alexius Meinong: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/meinong/- On Denoting [Paper]: https://www.uvm.edu/~lderosse/courses/lang/Russell(1905).pdf- Graham Priest [TOE]: https://youtu.be/ZGOMmGK4eeY- Nonexistent Objects [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/0300024045?tag=toe08-20- Abstract Objects [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/9027714746?tag=toe08-20- Noam Chomsky [TOE]: https://youtu.be/RIY0GFtHU2U- John Vervaeke [TOE]: https://youtu.be/GVj1KYGyesI- Presentism: https://iep.utm.edu/time/- Joscha Bach [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3MNBxfrmfmI- Existence [Book]: https://amazon.com/dp/1107625262?tag=toe08-20FOLLOW:- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e- Substack: https://curtjaimungal.substack.com/subscribe- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt- Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs- Crypto: https://nowpayments.io/donation/TOE- PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=XUBHNMFXUX5S4Guests do not pay to appear. #scienceLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices