| | There is a possibility that I was misinterpreting what Peikoff and Rand mean by the primacy of existence principle. To interpret what Peikoff meant by "existence", I was relying on the following quote from Peikoff: "The units of the concepts "existents" and "identity" are every entity, attribute, and action, event or phenomenon (including consciousness) that exists, has ever existed, or will ever exist." I interpreted this statement of Peikoff to mean that not only is the universe an instance of the concept "existence", but so was every individual thing which exists, as well as every aggregate thereof. (For example, I would have interpreted this keyboard that I am typing on to be an instance of the concept "existence" as that concept was used by Peikoff.) I got this quote from the online Ayn Rand Lexicon, but have noticed how other quotes of Peikoff which are in the same book seem to involve Peikoff talking about existence as meaning only the universe as a whole. Can anyone tell me what Peikoff means by saying what he said in the quote above? Is it just his way of describing existence as being the sum total of every individual existent? Has Peikoff ever made a remark about whether he means by the term "existence" everything as a whole, or has he said instead that he means by it every instance of something that exists? I thought that the "units" of a concept were whatever particular instances there were of the concept. (For example, my former Ford Thunderbird '95 would, I think, be a unit or instance of the concept "car".) But if this is what the units of a concept are, then in the quote I've given above Peikoff seems to be talking about the term "existence" in a wider sense that the universe only. That same car I mentioned would seem to be a unit of that concept as well. I'd greatly appreciate some clarity on this point if anyone can help me. Thanks.
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