Abstract

Almost all philosophers consider Kant as the founder of a view based on which "existence" is not a real predicate. Max Black is also one of the famous analytic philosophers most of whom believe that "existence" can only be the quantifier of particular propositions; therefore, it cannot function as their predicate. As a result, existence cannot be predicated on objects and individuals. In order words, it can never be considered as one of the characteristics of people and things. However, this paper intends to demonstrate in its first and second parts that two of the mental tests that these two philosophers have designed, namely, the distinction between the real Caesar and the possible Caesar and the assumption of two completely similar and, at the same time, different globes , can be formulated as two arguments for the theory of the principiality of existence. These two intellectual tests also testify to this view of Mulla Sadra that this theory is so evidently true that it is, although in a crude and unconscious form, the mental basis and ontological presupposition of those philosophers whose philosophical ideas are not apparently much consistent with this theory. The last part of this paper briefly deals with the relationship between existence and quiddity based on the theory of the principiality of existence and provides answers to some of the objections advanced against it