Define "being"

[saiboimushi]

What is "being"? Can one answer this question without a tautology? And if not, why?


Feel free to interrogate the assumptions behind these questions. I don't really mind how you approach the whole matter, as long as you can in some way satisfy my curiosity

[boagie]

Originally Posted by saiboimushi

What is "being"? Can one answer this question without a tautology? And if not, why?


Feel free to interrogate the assumptions behind these questions. I don't really mind how you approach the whole matter, as long as you can in some way satisfy my curiosity

saiboimushi.

I would say being is life, is consciousness, it is that which experiences and that which reacts to its experience. Inanimate being is another story

[saiboimushi]

This is an excellent beginning, and you may indeed have avoided a tautology. But if you are right, and being truly is consciousness, then what shall we say is consciousness?

[boagie]

Originally Posted by saiboimushi

This is an excellent beginning, and you may indeed have avoided a tautology. But if you are right, and being truly is consciousness, then what shall we say is consciousness?

saiboimushi,

Well the obvious would be consciouness is being, it is also perhaps a child of earth, a child of the inanimate, by which means the world is made aware of itself. Consciousness is reaction, organic beings do not act, they react to their environment, in some sense, it is the key that presumes its lock.

edit: Consciousness is reaction, A relational reaction is the seed or birth of consciousness you might say.

[kennethamy]

Originally Posted by saiboimushi

What is "being"? Can one answer this question without a tautology? And if not, why?


Feel free to interrogate the assumptions behind these questions. I don't really mind how you approach the whole matter, as long as you can in some way satisfy my curiosity

In the way you seem to be thinking of it, it is a term of art, a philosophical technical term: It is defined by the On-Line Dictionary as follows:

8.Philosophy. a.that which has actuality either materially or in idea. b.absolute existence in a complete or perfect state, lacking no essential characteristic; essence.


But what that all means is anybody's guess. Some philosophers, like the early 20th century philosopher, Meinong, used the term to include what he called both "existence" and "subsistence". "Existence" included tables and chairs, and ideas, but "subsistence" also included "things" like unicorns, square-circles, and Meinong's own favorite example, "the golden mountain". Both "things" that existed and subsisted, were said to have "Being". So that although the golden mountain does not exist, it subsists, and so, "has being". There are a number of confusions going on here. But Bertrand Russell's famous comment is most appropriate. He said that Meinong failed to have a "robust sense of reality".

[saiboimushi]

The term "actuality" is also promising, but unfortunately "existence" and "essence" seem tautological to me. I want to find a predication of being that expands my understanding of it, rather than merely reiterating what I already understand (which is very little).

But "actuality" may bring some new information to the table. So what does it mean for something to be "actual"? What is actuality?

[saiboimushi]

Originally Posted by boagie

saiboimushi,

Well the obvious would be consciouness is being, it is also perhaps a child of earth, a child of the inanimate, by which means the world is aware of itself. Consciousness is reaction, beings do not act, they react to their environment, in some sense, it is the key which presumes its lock.

I would agree that consciousness is awareness. But what is awareness?

This whole issue is vexing.

[boagie]

Originally Posted by saiboimushi

The term "actuality" is also promising, but unfortunately "existence" and "essence" seem tautological to me. I want to find a predication of being that expands my understanding of it, rather than merely reiterating what I already understand (which is very little).

But "actuality" may bring some new information to the table. So what does it mean for something to be "actual"? What is actuality?

saiboimushi,

Actuality, to me means the manifest, that which has form and content, as apposed to the unmanifest which does not have form and content and is god to some people."What is awareness" The best I can do is to say it is subject and object known to itself as a singularity which is indivisable.

Do not conditions proceed the formation of a thing/being is this not to be actualized at a point in time of the process of becoming, which gives reality to substance.?

[kennethamy]

Originally Posted by saiboimushi

The term "actuality" is also promising, but unfortunately "existence" and "essence" seem tautological to me. I want to find a predication of being that expands my understanding of it, rather than merely reiterating what I already understand (which is very little).

But "actuality" may bring some new information to the table. So what does it mean for something to be "actual"? What is actuality?

Well, the term "actual" seems to mean either, "current", as in "the actual position of the ship seems to be 3 miles off Cape Hatteras", or it means, "real" as opposed to "apparent", as when someone asks, "Is 3:10 the actual time, because that clock has been running slow lately".

[nameless]

Perhaps 'being' is... not 'doing'?