ABSTRACT
The idea of a thing can be acquired from the use and understanding of existential statements provided that the predicative element of these statements is of the thing, rather than the stuff or quality, kind. The basic elements of discourse, then, are thing-indications, of the form ‘here is an F’. The determinate occupancy of space is the essential feature of the primary individuals, or things. The primary qualities, the essential spatial characteristics of material things, are in a way common sensibles, at any rate they are all accessible to both sight and touch. The chapter argues that the common characteristic of the primary objects of reference is their possession of a determinate spatial form. Reference to individuals is required by existential statements, not to justify their assertion, but in order to endow them with the sort of meaning that they actually have.
