PAPER NO. 77

CONCEPT OF BEING

  1. BEING AND NON-BEING

    1. creation ex nihilo (no pre-existing material)
    2. unmanifest being (energy)
    3. invisible being (spirit)
    4. imaginary being (fictional)
    5. a from non-a (child/parents)
    6. void (medium of waves)

Philosophical examples: naked singularity; Thales and change; Buddhism; Hegel.

  1. BEING AND ASPECT OF BEING

Aspects are states (happy); relations (near); properties (red); activities (thinking).

  1. BEING AND THOUGHT

Thoughts are not beings but the product of thinking; and beings are not thoughts. Philosophical idealism corrects naïve realism but over-extends itself.

  1. BEING AND SUBSTANCE

Substance is defined as:

  1. that which exists in itself and not in another (in contrast to aspects of being)
  2. being without the form of a particular being
  3. that out of which a being is formed
  4. not made up of anything else
  5. that in which qualities inhere
  6. not a mode or dimension; there are two kinds of substances: matter and spirit—matter is extended and non-conscious; spirit is non-extended and conscious
  1. BEING AND A BEING

A being is substance of a particular form (or essence) that has been individuated. A being has functional unity.

  1. BEING AND ESSENCE

An individual being has an essence that is general for a class, and particular for one only. Existence cannot be separated from essence. Philosophical application: Existentialism; God in Islam; Brahman in Indian thought; Anaximander’s apeiron (transcends all qualities); voluntarism in freewill.

  1. BEING AND EXISTENCE

All being has existence; being is existence.

  1. BEING AND UNITY

    1. numerical unity: one and the same
    2. same essence; same nature as
    3. non-dual—all is one, without any difference
    4. unity of diversity (consider several forms of unity of diversity)
    5. ethical (same purpose as)
    6. part of (natural vs. collective unity)
  2. BEING AND ETERNAL EXISTENCE

    1. eternal is without beginning and without end, minimally
    2. eternal is independent, self-existing, self-maintaining, self-explaining
    3. eternal is not aeviternal—eternal in time; eternal is timeless
    4. eternal is not temporal (with a beginning) or everlasting (merely without end)
    5. whatever is eternal is also infinite
    6. there are no unique events for an eternal being (the sun or the soul)
    7. eternal is our most basic quality of being, logically and ontologically
    8. there must be something eternal

This paper was originally developed for an Introduction to Philosophy course.


© 1992 Logos Papers Press