"exist by virtue of" is correct and usable in written English.
This expression is used to describe something that exists due to a certain quality or action. For example, "The charity group exists by virtue of its members' dedication to helping the homeless."
Hence, if one were to compare two beings, both equally great in all respects except that one exists and one does not, the one that does not exist, by virtue of its non-existence, is lacking a predicate that contributes to the greatness of the other.
It is in fact "evident" (ẓāhir: Ilāhiyyāt, I, 6, 38, 1) that the necessary has no cause: to have a cause means to exist by virtue of something else, and what exists by virtue of itself cannot exist by virtue of another, nor can it exist by virtue of itself and at the same time not exist by virtue of itself.
In Wolff's system, the accidents of substance are the properties that exist by virtue of a thing's essentials.
Second, by stating that "it does not exist by virtue of its intrinsic objective reality" (svarūpatā / bdag gi ngo bo nyid), he means ultimate truth is not intrinsically real just as much as conventional truth is not intrinsically real.
In addition Candrakīrti argues that if things were intrinsically real, conventionally, as the Svātantrikas take them to be, in Candrakīrti's view, things would exist by virtue of their intrinsic reality, at least conventionally.
But it does not exist by virtue of its intrinsic objective reality (svarūpatā / bdag gi ngo bo nyid)." (MBh 6.23 Dbu ma 'a 253a) Of the two natures, the object of the perception of reality is the way things really are, and this is, Candrakīrti explains, what it means to be the ultimate truth (MBh 6.23 Dbu ma 'a 253ab).
Rather possession of the function exists by virtue of the collective character of the imposition (Searle 1995: 39).
One kind of long-lasting material reality exists by virtue of constant turnover in its constituent matter.
So being a chair is not an institutional fact; rather its functionality exists by virtue of its specific physical properties.
On the other hand, being a medium of exchange is an institutional fact; its functionality supposedly exists by virtue of collective imposition rather than specific physical properties.
That is to say, d ( x n, F ) ≤ d ( x n − 1, F ) shows that lim n → ∞ d ( x n, F ) exists by virtue of Lemma 1.1.
