Abstract

Peter Abelard is nowadays credited as the first philosopher to recognize the problem of existential import. I argue that he does not recognize our modern problem, and that his own take on the logical issues that are said to give rise to the problem is much more interesting and subtle than has usually been acknowledged, depending on claims in the philosophy of language that are worthy of investigation in their own right—in the end, vindicating Abelard’s claims about the traditional Square of Opposition.