Philosophy Stack Exchange
Philosophy Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [being]

31 questions
8
votes
4 answers

How could being follow action?

Some philosophers have denied the philosophical axiom "Agere sequitur esse"* ("'To act' follows from 'to be'"). What reasons do they give for thinking that action precedes (logically? ontologically? temporally?) being? How can there be action…
Geremia
  • 7,672
  • 2
  • 24
  • 52
8
votes
1 answer

Looking for a specific joke about arguments for Meinongianism

I remember reading a book (or a paper) some time ago, that had a line somewhat like this: There are good arguments for Meinongianism. They just don't exist. Now, I find this very funny and find myself telling this joke often. But I cannot, for the…
snofelet
  • 113
  • 3
7
votes
9 answers

How does being come into being? How does existence come into existence?

So, the universe was created by the big bang. And the big bang was created by some stringy things, or branes or whatever. But what created those strings? And what created the thing that created them? And so on, and so on, or as I know it, the…
dtech
  • 230
  • 1
  • 6
6
votes
1 answer

Does the act-potency distinction lead to Meinong's jungle?

The Aristotelian-Thomistic distinction of act-potency is, among other things, supposed to solve Parmenides' paradoxes of change. Since change requires something non-existent popping into existence ex nihilo (as far as I can tell, this is the case…
Adam Sharpe
  • 3,764
  • 2
  • 9
  • 35
6
votes
2 answers

Book on Meinong's theory of objects

Could anyone please recommend a book to begin to learn about Meinong's theory of objects and "Meinong's Jungle". I thought a good one might be "Meinong's Theory of Objects and Values" by Findlay (1963), but I can't find even a used copy anywhere…
user50229
  • 163
  • 3
6
votes
2 answers

The grades of being

I read once that Indian philosophy considers four levels of existence: being being and not being not being and being not being I thought this fascinating and more realistic than Western classifications, even if the text did not specify the exact…
user157860
  • 315
  • 1
  • 7
5
votes
6 answers

Does "Being-with-others" have an antonym?

Does "Being-with-others" have an antonym? If I, you or it did not have "Being-with-others" then what would that be? Just to illustrate what the phrase can mean, here's two quotes on Being-with “So far as Dasein is at all, it has…
user64727
5
votes
2 answers

What were Plato's views on substance?

Forms are Plato’s substances, for everything derives its existence from Forms. In this sense of ‘substance’ any realist philosophical system acknowledges the existence of substances. Probably the only theories which do not would be those…
user38026
4
votes
5 answers

Why must the first mover be unmovable?

In the first way of Aquinas it is proved that there exists an unmoved mover (or unchanged changer or even better, actualizer which was not actualized). It is often claimed that God is pure act without any potency; but I seem to think that in the…
Thom
  • 288
  • 2
  • 14
3
votes
2 answers

Are there things that don't exist?

This question is tripping me up. My working definition of exists is "affecting something/someone" Consider the following frame of reference: My bedroom I now have two categories. Things that exist (in my bedroom): Bed Computer Etc. Things that…
WokeBloke
  • 117
  • 3
3
votes
1 answer

Heidegger's "Dasein" vs. Sartre's "Being for itself"

I must admit, I am relatively new to existentialist philosophy. But I couldn't help notice the similarities between Heidegger's "Dasein" and Satre's "Being-for-itself". I was wondering, aren't they just the same idea with two different notions? Same…
xaratustra
  • 153
  • 3
3
votes
4 answers

Does Eternalism imply looping consciousness?

If the idea of Eternalism as expressed by those like J.M.E. McTaggart and Sean Carroll is true (as much of physics seems to suggest), the idea of the present moment being more real than the past or future is just a biological illusion. If that's the…
Trevor Villwock
  • 39
  • 2
3
votes
0 answers

Understanding 'existence' and 'being' in debates about ordinary objects

Quine has brought forward his definition of existence: 'To be is to be the value of a bound variable.' But has also taught us that the sciences ultimately determine what actually exists contrary to what possibly exists. This resulted in a…
Alex
  • 31
  • 1
3
votes
3 answers

Can potentiality be used to dispel Parmenides's monism?

Can we say that beings are different precisely because this being has this potencies and that being has that potencies? Is the (only) thing differentiating two different things their set of potencies? For example is only that which is…
Thom
  • 288
  • 2
  • 14
3
votes
4 answers

Is being something and not any other thing a necessary and sufficient condition of existence?

Is being something and not any other thing a necessary and (the only) sufficient condition of existence? I'm working on something close to the idea of Apoha, but in an ontological sense. I suppose that the answer is yes, since: a) it's necessary,…
Francesco D'Isa
  • 1,290
  • 1
  • 9
  • 18
1
2 3