different between ontological vs existential

English

Etymology

ontology +? -ical

Adjective

ontological (not comparable)

1. Of, or relating to, ontology.
2. Of or pertaining to the nature of being or existence.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture 3:

     Such is the human ontological imagination, and such is the convincingness of what it brings to birth. Unpicturable beings are realized, and realized with an intensity almost like that of an hallucination.

Derived terms

• ontological argument
• ontological shock
• preontological

Related terms

• ontic

Translations

Anagrams

• tonological

English

Etymology

Late Latin existentialis, from existentia.

Adjective

existential (not comparable)

1. Of, or relating to existence.
2. Concerning the very existence of, especially with regard to extinction.
3. Based on experience; empirical.
   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture I:

     In recent books on logic, distinction is made between two orders of inquiry concerning anything. First, what is the nature of it? how did it come about? what is its constitution, origin, and history? And second, What is its importance, meaning, or significance, now that it is once here? The answer to the one question is given in an existential judgment or proposition. The answer to the other is a proposition of value, what the Germans call a Werthurtheil ...

4. (philosophy) Of, or relating to existentialism.
5. (linguistics) Relating to part of a clause that indicates existence, e.g. "there is".

Antonyms

• non-phenomenal
• noumenal
• non-metaphysical

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

existential (plural existentials)

1. (linguistics) Ellipsis of existential clause
   • 2014, Silvia Luraghi, Tuomas Huumo, Partitive Cases and Related Categories, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG (?ISBN), page 153:

     We argue that existentials form a radial category, with a prototype and less canonical instances, where the prototype is clearly definable but the actual borderline between existentials and other clause types is fuzzy.

2. (programming) Ellipsis of existential type

   Coordinate term: generic

Further reading

• "existential" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 123.

References