nonexisting

Nonexisting is an adjective describing something that does not exist. In philosophy, nonexistence is discussed as a mode of being or as a problem for reference and truth conditions. Nonexisting objects—sometimes called nonexistent objects—are central to debates about how language can refer to things that have no actual being.

Meinong argued that such objects can be the objects of thought or discussion while lacking existence, which raises questions about intentionality and how terms pick out entities. Other theories of reference reject ontological commitments to nonexistent objects, instead analyzing talk about them in terms of properties, descriptions, or acts of referring.

In logic and semantics, the status of nonexisting referents influences theories of truth and predication. Russell's theory of descriptions suggests that statements about nonexisting entities can be analyzed to avoid committing to their existence; for example, "The present King of France is bald" is false because there is no object satisfying the description. Free logic and related frameworks provide tools to discuss nonexistent or hypothetical entities without collapsing into trivial truth conditions.

In everyday language, nonexistence is conveyed by negation or counterfactual scenarios. In computer science, a nonexisting value is commonly represented by null or undefined, signaling the absence of a valid object or data reference. Nonexistence thus interacts with fields as diverse as linguistics, philosophy, and information technology.