Being
The term being ( einai greek, latin eat - infinitive ) meaning in the philosophy of existence, givenness, in-the -world, something universal, especially Underlying, but also the all-encompassing Highest ( God). ( - Greek participle to on, the medieval Latin ens ) individual objects or facts In contrast, the concept of being features. Beings can also be the totality of all that exists, that "the whole world ", to which as long as it is spatially and temporally determined. His other hand is the unchanging, timeless, comprehensive essence (Greek ousia, essentia in Latin ) of both individual objects and the world as a whole.
The terms " a being " and "being" are in tension, as each plays a being beings in any way. Being is impermanent in the making. Being is become Possible. The investigation of the essence of all being is the main subject of the ontology. Another issue is the distinction of the being to non-being. To accentuate every form of realism that it is especially when sensibly given to a being is, on the other hand at just what is thought more likely to nonexistent. Beings presupposes an existing world of objects, properties, or relationships. In contrast, the various forms of idealism see the true being in the inner world of the notionally Presented while just denied the reality of an external world and is considered to be mere illusion.
The concept of being has the broadest possible range of meaning (extension) at all, because it can refer to anything that is conceivable relate. Anything is possible, it means everything "is not" not. For being and nothingness of the law of excluded middle applies. Only through the concept of being the notion of negation and difference is possible. Difference is the transition from being to being. Being and beings relate to each other in a dialectical relationship. From the Being ( thesis ) and the Nothing ( antithesis ) is given by the distinguishability beings ( synthesis). The difference between being and existence is that a being in reality is meant by existence with a spatial and temporal determination. On the other hand one can also such items without proven existence quite ascribe properties: Atlantis is under gone empire.
- 5.1 classic
- 5.2 Classic exegeses
- 5.3 Recent systematic discussion
The concept of being
A first approach to the subject is to be the linguistic use of the term. In colloquial German and in the Indo-European languages in general is used "to be" as a linguistic shortcut, as the copula, to connect the subject and predicate in sentences grammatically or statements in the logic. Whether these grammatical function corresponds to a mere copula of a semantic meaninglessness of the word "being" is discussed at the latest controversial since Aristotle.
" Also to be or not is not important -containing characters of the matter [ of which it is said ], even not if you the " being " would say naked in yourself, because it itself is nothing, but designates a certain connection [ something ] added, which is unthinkable without the Related "
It comes as an observation of Aristotle that still hold today many philosophers to be correct, depending on the constellation statement to various meanings of the word "is". " But the being is simply pronounced, used in multiple meanings. " ( Aristotle )
You can see the various meanings of the word "is" in the German schematically as follows differ
The use of "is" for the identification of existence may relate to the existence of objects, but also of facts ( it is the case that ... ) refer. The other uses of " is ", ie identity, predication or classification characterize relations or properties, they each implicitly the existence of the subject under filters ( so-called Existenzpräsupposition ).
Categorical determination of beings
A first systematic analysis of the existent is the font categories of Aristotle. In this work he examined basic statement ways of beings. He compiled a list of ten words that are no longer on other terms are completely independent from each other and from his perspective recyclable.
The category list contains two classes of terms, namely the substance and the other nine categories that accidents. Substance is a being Underlying ( hypokeimenon ). The substance is the subject of a statement ( predication ), respectively. Accidents, however, do not exist independently, but only in a substance. It can be said only with a substance.
In a further step, Aristotle distinguished first substances ( prote ousia ) of the second substance ( ousia deutera ). The first substance can not be predicated of any other Underlying. It is individual and the number by one, so indivisible. The second substances are the species and genera that are predicated of the first substances. From Socrates to say that he is a human being and an animal. The second substances are no accidents because they always get the first substance. They describe the nature of the first substance. Accidents, however, always refer to a particular state of a substance.
History of Philosophy
Antiquity
In Greek natural philosophy was the search after the first cause of beings in explanations based on a Urstoffes (fire, water, air, Apeiron ). Only in Parmenides Being was an abstract, beyond the natural philosophy to be determined term.
" The one ( shows ) that the ( beings ) and that it is impossible that there is not. This is the path of the conviction; he follows but the truth. But the other ( claimed) that it is not and that there must be this not- necessary. This path is - I tell you - totally inscrutable. For that which is not, you can not see ( because that is impossible) nor utter. "
By the being is no longer the empirically graspable, but the true, Parmenides rejected that which is not from impossible. For him was, " that being is uncreated and imperishable, whole and uniform, and unwavering and complete. " Parmenides difference in his didactic poem, in which he also looked at the growth and decay of nature, for the first time between the ephemeral beings and the eternal metaphysical being, even if he did not explicitly used the concept of being. What it really is, is not created and does not pass. Against Parmenides represented Heraclitus becoming as the underlying principle of the world. ( panta Rhei )
Plato problematized in dialogue Sophist, that in the non-existent possibility plugged in, so you can talk about nonexistent. The nonexistent is not nothing but controversy. If one says, for example, that peace is not moving, it does not mean that rest is nothing. " Yet she is because of their share of beings ". Rest and exercise are just not the same. For Plato, the being was something that partakes as birth and death on his ( the immutable ideas ). The existence of red things is to participate in the redness. His is, according to Plato next rest, exercise, identity and diversity one of the five categories in which participate all other ideas.
" And since the being and the various go through everything and through each other: so now is the Different than the existent proportion of course having to be in virtue of that share, but not that what it has content, but different; as being different but being of beings, it is obviously quite necessary nonexistent being. Again therefore the being as having at Different proportion is, indeed different from all other genera, and of them it is a whole different so each one of them did not, nor all the other overall, but only it yourself "
Even if he understood being as abstract, as Plato still focused on the consideration of empirically the comprehensible:
" So I say what has just any active force ( dynamis), unless by nature to do anything else ' ( poiein ) or even to suffer in the slightest from the most insignificant - even if it were only once - everything in an exact manner is ( ontus einai ); because I use as a definition (border) to delineate the being in its being, otherwise than active force. "
The laws of cause and effect underlying Its standing as immutable variables concerning the ideas, whose highest principle is the unit (to hen ).
Only Aristotle came to a clear conceptual distinction between beings and Being. " From time immemorial, and now and always in demand and always difficult to grasp what the being is. " (Met. VII 1, 1028 b 2-4) In dealing with Plato's ideas he developed at an early concept structuring of beings by category ( see above). Later he made in metaphysics the " beings as beings " (to ho s on) and the basic theme of " first philosophy ". " There is a science that considers being as being and what this plays itself. " (Met. IV 1, 1003a 21)
About the categorical structuring, he now looked at the being as existence (to estin ), as reality ( entelechia ) and possibility ( dunamis ) and as true and false. Being is not generic because it ( equivocal ) is predicated of the things not clear ( univocal ), but ambiguous. The concept of being added to the substance ( ousia ) nothing added; it is that which is always already contain immutable and essential terms in the individual things. Being as General can not be predicated upon a Single unrelated (see universals ). Everything that is said about being, has in itself the being as such, which donates the unit ( pros hen ), the supreme beings and first ( protos on). "By now in so many meanings beings are called, so apparently the first of them being is the what, which denotes the essence ( substance). " (Met. 1028 a 13-15 ). The absolute being is in Aristotle the " unmoved mover ," which he took as the pure, only yourself thinking reason, strives to which all beings and the resulting growth and decay is caused.
Neoplatonism
In Neoplatonism Plotinus is the ground, the first principle, the One (to hen ), from which the ideas and empirically existent derive hierarchical. Being is equated with the spirit ( nous ). The Spirit is also the being. Being and thinking coincide in one. Being is the thinking, the being that which is thought.
"The first fact has a simple, above all, be Lying, which is different from everything for him, being for itself, not mixed with something that comes from him, and yet capable in other ways, things to attend, truly a being and not something else first and then only one. [ ... ] Because if it were not simply caught all randomness and all compositeness, and actually truly One, then it would no longer be the first cause; only in that it is simple, it is of all things the most independent and so the first thing. "
For this ground of all being flows through emanation. The mind itself is the first step of the emanation. Reason can not be the supreme authority, because it always contains a reference to something that is a difference. These unspecified difference is being. The unfolding of existence is the world of ideas ( cosmos noetos ), the world reason. The Nous emanation produced by the genera and species of beings. The ideas are the whole of each being, by the multiplicity of the matter is brought to unity. The ideas give to beings the form and are therefore ontologically primary. The emanation is a hierarchical process of development from the top generally up to the individual nature and to the individual. Result, the order of the world is also determined.
"If the ideas are many now, so there must be in them, and also a Private, whereby the one different from the other required a common. This own words, this secreting difference is the individual shape of the idea. But is a figure there, so there is something that is designed, in which is the specific difference; there is therefore also subject matter, which receives the form, and for each, the substrate. Furthermore, if there is an intelligible cosmos in the upper world and the earthly his image, but this is composed, among others, of matter, it must also give matter there. "
Similar to Plotinus his pupil Porphyry being, life and thinking different. This will be followed joined Augustine in his doctrine of the Trinity Christian thought with Neoplatonism. The uncreated divine being is against the created worldly beings. Being is the sensual human knowledge no longer accessible. Knowledge of being becomes a believer inner knowledge ( intima cognitio ). Even Boethius represented the dependence of the being of the divine Being. " Different is the being and what is; Being itself is namely not, but only that which is by receiving the form of being, and there is. " ( Boethius ) Every being ( ens ) participates in the being ( esse ), but has the being itself part in anything. The ideas are ideas in the mind of God, whose will is the first principle.
Middle Ages
In the medieval discussion, the debate about the relationship of being and God was with each other especially on the issue of proofs of God. While Scotus Eriugena, God still about being and non-being and rejected statements about God as impossible, the proof of God by Anselm of Canterbury contains positive statements about God by him as the highest good, the highest greatness, the supreme being ( summum essentia ), the highest being ( summum esse ), but also as the highest being ( ens summum ) designated. God is that which can not be thought of as larger ( quo maius cogitari non potest ). Only through the awarding of a property, a proof of God is possible and thus also taking a realistic position in universals.
Thomas Aquinas has the radical realism of Anselm mitigated by the doctrine of the analogia Entis. In his work De ente et essentia ( About the being and essence ) he showed, first, that for the being without compass or infinite regress no cause can be identified. Being itself is a prerequisite for differentiation ( Realdistinktion ) of beings.
Against the concept of analogy put John Duns Scotus, the doctrine of the univocity of being. The being ( ens ) is the simplest concept ever ( simpliciter simplex ). This term is included in all other terms ( in omni conceptu est ens ). Whether you talk about the nature or philosophy or theology, is always already the concept of being with included. The distinction between categories can only relate to the natural and finite beings. God, however, is the infinite being, nothing can be said about the other. The finite being is the subject of reason, the being is infinite matter of faith.
The separation of reason and faith found a continuation in William of Ockham. Although he acknowledged that being and one as terms of all the individual things in nature ( washeitlich ) be said, but as a nominalist, he rejected the concept of univocity. " Although there are common term in this sense, an all beings, yet is the name Being ' equivocal because he nothing of all things, from which it may be said, is predicated on significant use in accordance with a concept. " Are outside of the mind only individual things.
Hume
For David Hume, the existence of an external world was not rationally justifiable. The belief in the external world is a natural, psychologically conditioned human need.
"The idea of existence must therefore be exactly the same as the idea of what we conceive as existent. Simply to refer to anything in the reflection and thereby to refer to existent, are not two different things. The idea of the existence adds, if it is linked to the idea of any object, nothing added to it. Whatever we imagine, we imagine to exist. Any idea who it to make us popular, is a representation of something beings. Who denies this, must of necessity may indicate the distinct impression from which the idea of being could be derived, and show that this impression of each perception, which we regard as existing, is inseparable. "
Kant
" Being is evidently not a real predicate, which is a concept of anything that might come to the conception of a thing added. It is merely the positing of a thing or of certain determinations in itself in logical use, it is merely the copula of a judgment. The sentence God is omnipotent contains two terms which have their objects: God and omnipotence; the word: is, is not a predicate, but only what is the predicate or to the subject. I now take the subject ( God ) with all its predicates (among which also the omnipotence heard ) together and say God is, or there is a God, so I put no new predicate to the conception of God, but only the subject to yourself with all its predicates, and indeed the object in relation to its term. Both must contain exactly all the same, and it may therefore be the terms that merely expresses the way, so that I ( by the expression: he is) the subject matter as absolutely given think nothing added on. And so the real contains no more than the merely possible. "
The term of existence of an object is empty. It brings to an object not add anything extra. Whether or not a term has a content that can be assessed only on the basis of experience. And this, according to Kant is based on symptoms. Ontology is thus for Kant a speculative, ie metaphysical discipline.
Spruce
In Fichte's concept of subjective idealism that is His expression of the ego: " The one whose being ( essence ) consists merely in the fact that it sets itself as a being, is the ego, as absolute subject. As it continues, it is; and as it is, it is composed; and the ego is therefore for the ego per se, and necessary. What is not for yourself, I is not. "
Hegel
The problem arises of the beginning of all philosophy. In it are for Hegel already contain all the moments. His doctrine of Being is the beginning of his logic. To this end, he takes the understanding of being the Eleatic, and on the other hand that of Heraclitus, again. These particular it as the beginning (principle) or due to the varying phenomena of nature. Pure being is contained as the Other of pure nothingness ( Heraclitus / Plato ) immediately at the beginning. Hegel speaks here of a pure abstraction, that is absolutely indeterminate being. It is the unity of finite and infinite; Rest and exercise, as well as basic everything given. The absolute being is synonymous for him with God.
" Pure being is the beginning, because it is both pure thought as the indeterminate and simple immediate, the first beginning can be mediated and nothing more definite but. "
Here mean pure thought, pure thought and pure being, that they are mere form and absolutely no content. As a pure abstraction, it is the same as nothing. When alone, the one is as true or false as the other. Hegel says that only is the unity of both their truth. Becoming consists of them. Therefore, they are identical in him, although they remain different. This truth of Heraclitus is fundamental to Hegel's whole logic. Hegel speaks of an absolute abstraction without further determination. All concepts of philosophy are for him " examples of this unity."
"It 's a great thought, from his move to becoming; it is ( in Heraclitus, note) nor abstract, but at the same time it is also the first concrete, the unit opposite regulations. This is so restless in this relationship, the principle of vitality is in it. It is in the lack replaced, Aristotle has shown in the previous philosophies - the lack of movement; this movement is now here even principle. It is this philosophy no past; its principle is essential [ ... ]. It is a great insight that it has been recognized that being and nonbeing are only abstractions without truth, the first truth is only becoming. The mind both isolated as true and claims; however, the reason recognizes the one in the other, that in the one its Other is included, -. , and so is the universe, the Absolute to determine as becoming "
He takes the old question of metaphysics according to God again. " Being itself, as well as [ ... ] the logical rules at all may as definitions of the Absolute, as the metaphysical definitions of God are considered " (Hegel ) Pure Being is only the form of the Absolute. He also distinguishes the particular, which he calls life from indefinite existence. " Its existence is certain; its determinateness is existent certainty, quality. " (Hegel ) This is finite because becoming already nothingness, contains the moment its finitude in itself. Conveys being is by the nature. In it, the being is not only directly, but also conveys. Only in the concrete existence occurs, the difference between the nature and its appearance. Everything that exists has an appearance. It is none other than the non-moving beings on which this publication is based variable. In the concept and essence are repealed. They are united in him than knowledge. He is the unity of subjectivity and objectivity. This respect is the highest, what can the man of God and all other know his term. This then makes the reality of the subject.
Heidegger
Martin Heidegger's ontological starting point is the ontological difference between being and beings with which he so to speak, the hermeneutic paradigm is transferred to the ontology: Just as a particular portion can be understood only by its relation to the whole, being forms the horizon of understanding for everything individually in the world is encountered. Being therefore precedes all existence. So how are not visible in the given donor and giving the being is ever before and mitgängig in dealing with the world. However, since being is not a being itself, is impossible to say which is " being". Heidegger says, therefore, to " Being " to avoid the expression, "there being" or " Western Being ". Being is always the athematic horizon on which the individual things show up in their meaningful significance. His understanding and thus coincide with Heidegger. Heidegger's philosophical concern was to make this athematic horizon specifically on the topic and to raise the explicit what is otherwise merely thought along and mitgemeint implicitly.
Since the everyday language always refers only to a being and not on athematic " understanding Horizons", Heidegger saw it as its duty to develop a completely new vocabulary in order to talk about being, without changing the traditional terms for a being incorrectly on the His would be transferred and have reified it so. This has led to a struggle with the traditional language in Heidegger and earned him his idiosyncratic style.
To understand the " meaning of being ", Heidegger attempts in " Being and Time " to clarify this by the fact that he questioned those who always wanted Its kinda understand: people. Heidegger is doing an understanding of being and not a recognize, such as in Kant, when it asks for the cognitive faculties of the subject. Behind the understanding, the thinking does not go back, because meaning is always already something going forward, it may not subsequently by Zusammenstückung two initially unrelated, ie senseless things are made. To understand the " meaning of being " Den, therefore, can only be achieved by entering into a hermeneutic circle around in a circular motion, moving from the individual to the whole and back to uncover the meaning of Being. This individual is the man, the whole thing is given to him its existence and the world in its worldliness, which Heidegger the basal structures of meaning in the world thinks like about the usefulness of tools. Heidegger tries in " Being and Time " the existentials, ie, the humans fundamentally determined structures expose. Based on this, then the question should be answered in turn, how the world can understand them through.
" Being and Time ", however, remained a fragment, and the question of the meaning of being largely unknown. Heidegger, according to a signified by him as bend rethinking in his late work trying to think of the history of Being relationship of man to His. In the history of philosophy review shows for Heidegger that Being itself is not static but undergoes changes: In the Middle Ages all that exists, for example, thought of as created by God, while in modern times, according to which only the " death of God ", the entire planet resource for human needs appear, ie under utilitarian considerations. "Truth" is therefore not a timeless and always dominant, but truth itself is historical. They can be traced back at square on a subject that the being determined by the application of fixed categories, but it occurs in the course of history by being itself forth not as yet. This man can not do with it, how and when it opens up a world at large. Especially since this is itself a process, according to Heidegger, is still never moved into the consciousness of the people. This is due to that being always so entbirgt that a being arrives in Being and appears, but also the process of revealing itself is not the problem of the people. Being so conceals himself in his unconcealing. This leads Heidegger to the oblivion of Being, which essentially determines the history of Western philosophy and which to this day makes sure that was never really raised the question of why the technical mastery of the world appears at the beginning of the modern era as the last sense of humanity.