Proof of Rational Existence is tautology: RE is the idea that ideas have a rational existence.  It is not possible to acknowledge the existence of any word or thought without acknowledging RE.

If a tree falls in the woods there is no existence of the action if there are no beings in the universe which understand what trees are, what falling is, and where the woods are.  The importance of existence is within the ideas that allow explanation, conceptuality, intellectualization. The acceptance of the existence of ideas is Rational Existence.  RE confirms and reifies the existence of a tree, of falling, and of woods.  Existence is a concept, and without concepts there can be no notion of existence, hence the tautology.

A tautology is a logical certainty with no information.  A tautology says the same thing twice with different words.  Existentialism affirms we gives meaning to our own lives through living those lives. Existentialism is therefore a form of tautology in that the meaning of life is the meaning we give to our lives. The meaning is our meaning, not quite a tautology

The famous assertion “I think therefore I am” contains the clear implication that thinking presupposes existence.  The assertion is that some things that exist think.  At some deeper level, perhaps, the assertion also implies that existence itself is reified by thinking, which then would be a tautology:  that we know we exist by thinking; that the act of thinking is the epitome and essence of existence.  At the very least, those who recite the sentence “I think therefore I am” propose the sentence means thinking is evidence of existence.  Thinking then supports the supposition that  existence is supported by thinking.

Should we accept the premise that thinking somehow reifies existence we have accepted the premise of Rational Existence.  Existence is not physical but rather rational.  Our models and concepts and words and explanations and definitions are what make our world.  Existence cannot be known, however we can know relationships that exist, as well as other aspects and attributes of existence.

 

The importance of RE is most apparent in religion.  All religion requires the acceptance of an unknowable or at the very least improvable hypothesis.  Once RE is accepted, however, one is faced with defining the structure and not the substance of the unknowable.  God, therefore, or Jesus, or Muhammad or the Buddha can no longer be viewed as physical beings, whether or not they ever were, indeed no being or animal or rock or atom is viewed as merely physical because every recognized entity has a part in rational existence.  Nothing meaningful can be merely physical because its very recognition puts it in relationship with concepts, models and ideas which have a greater existence than the physical.

Much of what is unknown must have the very same structure as the known, whether or not we know that structure.  We cannot know substance, but only relationships, aspects and attributes of the structure of some things.  RE acknowledges that the importance of existence is not physical, but rather the relationships, aspects and attributes of what exists physically.  The idea, the structure, the concept, the relationships, aspects and attributes are the important existence while the physical objects we relate to have only tangential existence.

Allowing for the existence of concepts need not force the creation of metaphysics, platonic forms, a spirit world, humors or magic.  We need not define existence or separate existence from physicality.  Acknowledging that our existence is conceptual goes a long way toward reconciling religion and science as well as forming a foundation for psychology and learning theory.