Kant's Problematic View of Existence and the Failure of Logical Approach Solution

Jerome Shaffer (1962) showed that Kant’s approach to the issue of existence results in at least two one. According to the first problem, which has been called “the problem of contradiction”, Kant’s approach implies that ‘exists’ is both a real and a non-real predicate. According to the second, which has been called “the problem of triviality”, Kant’s view of existence implies that in the act of predicating, either the subjects cannot have exact objects as their extensions and/or no predicate could be a “real” predicate. The paper starts by formulating these two problems. Then Richard Campbell’s (1974) and Nicholas Everitt’s (1995) views, under the title of “logical approach” are explained. These philosophers, using some logical tricks, such as considering ‘exists’ as a mere “relational predicate”, or introducing a demarcation criterion to make a proper distinction between real and non-real predicates, have tried to interpret Kant in such a way, as to find proper solutions to the aforementioned problems. In this paper, however, it is shown that none of these solutions, which are arguably among the best solutions that have ever been proposed, are successful and satisfactory.