Does something exist if it never interacts? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 weeks ago by Laura@lemmy.ml to c/philosophy@lemmy.ml

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If nothing interacts with it, does it exist?

Not “unknown”. Not “unobserved”.

I mean: no interaction at all.

Because in experiments, nothing happens inside a system on its own.

Events only appear when something meets something else.

So maybe this is the real question:

Is existence something things have—

or something that only appears when things interact?

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[-] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

Maybe.

It’s possible reality has entities that don’t interact with anything.

But we wouldn’t know about them, because to be able to know them we’d have to interact with them.

They’d be an unknowable unknown.

I wouldn’t worry too much about unknowable unknowns.

For all we know, they might as well not exist.

[-] Laura@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

I get what you’re saying. It’s true that interaction is necessary in order for us to know something.

But that might be a condition on the side of knowing, not necessarily a condition for something to exist.

For example, if we only call things “existent” when we can see or touch them, then aren’t we just cutting out the part of the world we happen to be able to engage with?

From that perspective, something that doesn’t interact with us isn’t “nonexistent”— it might simply not be appearing on our side.

And if that’s the case, then… what exactly is it that doesn’t exist— that thing, or us?

this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026

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