There is a difference between "X is real" and "X exists,"
Well, of course. They're not spelt
the same.
Okay, you will say it's not what you meant. Well, sure, but whether there's is a difference between X and Y is entirely dependent on what people mean by X and Y. Which you would need to address.
but the difference between their respective opposites perplexes me.
I can see why. The difference between "laer si X" and "stsixe X" is really perplexing.
EB
In philosophy (I have learned), there is something known as the use-mention distinction. When I say "the cat is on the mat," I'm
using the words. If we transition our conversation and begin to talk about words themselves (for instance, the word "cat" has three letters and has a meaning and a referent), then that's considered
mentioning the word.
Also, it's customary to distinguish between the two in writing by placing words mentioned in double quotes; hence, note the difference between cat and "cat." If I say the cat is on the mat, i'm not saying the word, "cat" is on the word, "mat."
Things can still get tricky. The opposite of cold is hot, but the
opposite of idea applies but not to the words--although that's probably controversial as people would try to apply reason that may not fit. For instance, we can't feed or pet the word "cat." Words aren't the kinds of things that can be fed or pet, yet upon hearing "how do you spell cat?," it's no wonder one will parse this to mean "how do you spell the word, "cat?" Do words have opposites--or their meanings! Meanings.
The word, "real" is (of course ambiguous--story of my life!) and I do not intend to use the meaning associated with being opposed with the words "counterfeit" or "fake." In the context where I'm pitting the meanings of the words "real" and "exist" against each other, I'm using the word "real" in the sense of "not imaginary." If something is not real, then there's a good chance that it's imaginary, right? No. The relationship is perplexing. It's better to say that if something is not imaginary, then it's real, if it exists; thus, something being real presupposes that it exists, but that is not the case with that which is imaginary, as if something imaginary could be on a grand list of all things that exist.
If someone asks me, "hey, are unicorns real?, if I'm not especially careful, I might say (and correctly say) that they do not exist, but that doesn't answer the question. Intuitively, we might think that if something doesn't exist that it's therefore imaginary, but I strongly believe there's good reason to suspect that's faulty reasoning--even if true. The opposite of "real" is not identical with its negation leaving room for something that perplexes the hell out of me.
Things can't magically shift from being in the category of what's real to being imaginary or vice versa. Imagine there's a dog in your closet and you go to the closet and are surprised to find a dog. You didn't find an imaginary dog. The dog is real. The closet is where I might look for a unicorn, not the mind, yet people lump them in with the imagination even though they look elsewhere to find one. Any way, the "I can't find it and it's not here and therefore it's imaginary" idea is not built on a foundation as strong as it might otherwise appear. It might simply not exist but would very much be real if it did. It's not apart of or stemming from imagination.
When confronted with the question, "does reality exist?," the complexity is compounded. First, I would dispel the subjective notion of reality as being people specific. For instance, the idea of everyone having their own reality appears to be to me nothing much more than confusing perceptions which are subject dependent. To say of something that it exists is to say of something that it has properties. That's helping to communicate meaning, not a formula for determining existence. If something has properties, then something exists. Circular, but it's supposed to be.
Does reality have properties? Well, if something is real, it does. It presupposes it. "Reality" vs "real." Eh, close enough. I say yes, reality exists.
