Is there a difference between saying "X definitely exists" and "X might exist"?

Question

serf: You are such a literalist. ;)

Answer 1

I feel there is a difference. Saying "definitely" implies that you personally have seen proof and are as certain as you can be that X exists. Saying "might" could be used when it's a theory, or if you think it exists, but haven't researched it yet to be absolutely (definitely) certain.

Answer 2

Lets' break this question down into some further distinctions:

1). the more general ideas that describe something more specific

2). the idea we have of some specific thing

3). the thing itself

4). the materials composing the thing plus the circumstances that allow it to endure (while it does endure).

To this, some people will insist on adding

5). the actual thinking about/ experiencing of the thing by someone at the time.

Now, the general ideas that allow something to be understood, examined, etc., I would say, always exist, and I feel that the most general ideas would be a feature of reality whether or nt there were any minds left to think those ideas. Not eveyrone agrees that there are truths if no-one is left to think about them--I'll return to that.

By drawing on those abstractions and looking at more temporary or changable truths--I can see if an object still exists, where to look for it--or how to bring it about if it has never or existed before, or do my best to create a pretty good duplicate--in this sense, we can say that something might exist, but that is different from whether it does exist, or did exist, or could xist later on.

Yet so much of what we interact with, is really a form bringing together substances that were other things before, and that will break down and be other things--so saying something definitely exists, is very often simply describing whetehr or not what it is made out of and what lets it last for awhile is really put togetehr that way--if the stuff that makes the thing isn't put togetehr that way, again, we can say that it ight exist, might be made to exist--and yet that, at this time, that the stuf that could become that thing is present, but that the thing has definitely not been put together yet, and the ideas about it exist as only an abstraction.

But what if abstractions do not really exist if they are not thought about, or if they are not attached to some definite experience? If ideas can fall apart the way objects can fall apart, then there is less posisb ility that everything which can be though of as a possibility might be brought about even if it isn't present. I only include this way of thinking to give a balanced account--I don't agree with it at all.

So, in summary--saying that the conceivability of a thing or it's possibility exists has a very practical difference from saying that the idea actually corresponds to something that really has formed matter that way and definitely exists.

Answer 3

Yes

Answer 4

It's a matter of degree. In sentence one, you are making a statement that something is exists, which would be a fact, the other is left to interpretation, x could exist or not exist.

Answer 5

Boy, with all the existance questions you've been posting, you should definately check out

whydoesgodhateamputees.com

And there is a huge difference. The difference is you being here, or not, right?

Answer 6

Yes.

Look up the linguistics literature on evidentials in natural language, if you want to learn more about what scholars think the differences are.

Answer 7

To think like that, wouldn't you just assume everything is 'relative' to humans?

I see a red box, but that is because we labeled it that way. The only things we know is either what we are told (God) or what we as humans have measured by our own means (science).

Answer 8

yes. proof.

a box with a small window inside of which is a cat.
you can view the cat, and know it is definately there.

a box without that window. may hold a cat but may not.

thats the difference.

Answer 9

Yes. (the different part is the second word in each sentence.)

Answer 10

for starters, the word DEFINITELY and MIGHT are two different words with 2 different meanings. one is conclusive and the other is probability