Existence, a Univocal Reality

Essence is the answer to the question 'what is it?' and Existence is the answer to the question 'Is it?'. Now according to the philosophers existence is a univocal [mushtarek-e-ma'nawi] reality as opposed to being equivocal [mushtarek-e-lafzi]. A term is said to be univocally applied if it is predicable to different subjects with the same meaning, and it is said to be equivocally applied when it is predicated to different subjects in different meanings. So for instance if the predication of existence to God yields a meaning distinct from its predication to 'the world' so we would say that existence is equivocal, but if existence is assumed to be equivocal and we know that existence is synonymous with reality [haqiqa] and thingness [shaiyi'at] so its predication in relation to 'the world' would mean reality but when predicated in relation to God it would mean something other than what is denoted by reality, and the other [ghayr] of existence is non-existence, therefore were existence to be equivocal and if its predication to a subject, say 'the world' indicated reality, so its predication with God would denote non-existence, because the other of existence and reality is non-existence, and this is inadmissible because this would render existence equivalent to non-existence which is its opposite leading to a conjunction of contraries [ijtima-e-naqizain]. Therefore existence is predicable to both God and the world in the same identical meaning which is denoted by entified-reality, however the reality of existence varies in relation to the different subjects such that while the meaning of existence when used for the different subjects is the same but its reality is distinct. Moreover to say that existence is equivocal would amount to a suspension of one's intellect and reason thereby leading to sophism and skepticism since such an attitude would prevent any realization of certainty in knowledge.

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