inexistence

See also: in existence

English

Etymology

From in- +‎ existence.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˌɪnɪɡˈzɪstəns/
Audio (Southern England): (file)

Noun

inexistence (usually uncountable, plural inexistences)

The state of not being, not existing, or not being perceptible.
- 1648, Robert Boyle, Seraphic Love‎^[1], Kessinger, published 1997, →ISBN, page 57:
  Our inexistence indeed was a condition, wherein nothing in us was capable of being a motive of God's love; but our enmity proceeded further, and made us worthy of his detestation; […]
- 1941, Giuseppe di Gioia, Swift are the Shadows‎^[2], page 78:
  In order to prove the inexistence of God, he challenged Him to strike him down in five minutes while timing himself with a watch.
- 2007, Jacques-Alain Miller, “The Sinthome, A Mixture of Symptom and Fantasy”, in The Later Lacan‎^[3], →ISBN, page 57:
  Axiomatics (namely, that everything that will be used for the purposes of a demonstration is explained) does nothing more than formalizing this wiping clean — in other words, inexistence is posed as the condition for necessity to emerge.
The state of existing in something
- 1663, Isaac Barrow, “A Defence of the Blessed Trinity”, in The Theological Works of Isaac Barrow‎^[4], published 1830, page 188:
  that there is a mutual inexistence of one in all, and all in one; […]
- 1854, Christopher Walton, Notes and Materials for an Adequate Biography of the Celebrated Divine and Theosopher: William Law‎^[5], page 207:
  She distinguished as to this, the inexistence in God from eternity, and the figurative manifestation in time.
- 2005, Louis Dupre, The Enlightenment and the Intellectual Foundations of Modern Culture‎^[6], →ISBN, page 303:
  Berkeley's theory of the creature's permanent inexistence in God evoked a suspicion of pantheism.
That which exists within; a constituent.
- 1768-1777, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued
  where could they find such receptacle for their inexistence

Usage notes

In modern philosophical writing, this is chiefly used with the sense "nonexistence" as a literal translation or calque of a corresponding term in another European language, such as the German Inexistenz or the Spanish inexistencia.