But if you don't exist, surely his certificate is invalid.
The key question is whether the certificate actually exists. Maybe it's just a figment of the trust fund manager's imagination and neither Bystander nor his friend exist. ;-)
Service people who had been through the Army's Psychiatric Unit at Netley used to boast that they - as opposed to many in the Army - had a certificate proving they were 'normal'
I have long been aware of the word "existential" but have never actually found the need to find out what the word means. Having now consulted the Collins Word Exchange Online Dictionary, I am not sure that I am the better or my mind clearer for the experience. The certificate only exists in the mind of the acceptor, just as does the JP and his status.
My dad once told me a story from his RAF days. There was a pilot who crashed, and suffered mental as well as physical injuries. Before he could fly again he had to obtain a certificate proving he was sane - something he was justifiably proud of!
You just reminded me of a quote from Gladiator:
"What we do in life, echoes in eternity. Fear not. For if you you find yourself riding through green fields with the sun on your face, then you are in Allesium, and you are allready dead".
If a trustee issues a cheque and no one cashes it, does it make anyone rich?
Yes, the trustee...
Indeed, as you so very nearly said the other day, Bystander:
"I like to say 'I am not signing this to say that it's true (that you exist), but to say that you say it is true (that you do)'".
But hey! The very fact that you signed your friend's Certificate, must indisputably and simultaneously prove your own existence too; so no need to feel insecure or unhappy about this.
I blog therefore I am.
What does the word "exist" mean?
It means you are prejudiced against your ex. Qualifies you for a certificate of normality.
Sorry if this sounds dense, but couldn't you just write yourself out your own certificate?
Or would this constitute some sort of recursive space-time anomaly, which would rip open the fabric of the universe and cause a giant wormhole which would swallow the Earth and reform the history of the Universe so that we would never have existed?
Possibly better not to risk it.
Let's get someone from the government in to explain why their proposed ID cards would do away with the need for such a certificate, as well as killing all known terrorists dead.
Don, perhaps you mean "Does the word 'exist' really exist?"
"The very fact that you signed your friend's Certificate, must indisputably and simultaneously prove your own existence too." Sorry, that's an old logical fallacy. It amounts basically to assuming that the laws of grammar in Indo-European languages are natural law. There's no a priori reason why the existence of an action implies the existence of an actor.
As an accountant, I was once approached by a client who told me that his name had been spelled wrongly on a share certificate and he had been asked to prove he was the person named. I wrote a statement declaring that "Mr Smith" the human being was identical with "Mr Simth" the well-known typing error. All was well, but I still think the late Spike Milligan would have done a better job than me.
There's no a priori reason why the existence of an action implies the existence of an actor.
But if there are no actors, there's no point in shouting "action!".
I am a newcomer to your excellent blog, Bystander, and as this item is so old I doubt if you will ever read it. However, a few years ago I was invited to get a worthy to sign a "Certificate of Existence" for me, in respect of a modest annuity. I told the company that such a certificate was not required in respect of my civil service pension, nor my state pension, and I resented the fact that they would not accept my word that I still existed. They replied that they had reveiwed their procedures, and they would not thereafter require such a certificate. They haven't.
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