Being
| Category | Philosophy |
|---|---|
| Depth | Standard |
| Article type | local Catholic reference article |
Definition
Being means what is: whatever has reality in some way. A tree exists; its height is real too, but its height does not stand beside it as another tree. Thinking about being begins by asking how these different realities exist. It does not begin by imagining an invisible substance called Being spread through everything.
Catholic usage
A living tree, its colour and a thought about the tree are not real in precisely the same manner. The tree is a thing; the colour belongs to a thing; the thought is an act of a thinker. A fictional tree exists as something imagined or described, without thereby existing as a growing plant. These distinctions keep us from confusing a word, an idea and its object.
Catholic thinkers use this vocabulary when asking about creatures and their Creator. But the first question is philosophical and open to anyone: what must be true for something to be real, to change or to depend on another? Quoting a creed does not replace that investigation.
Doctrinal context
Aristotle calls this inquiry the study of being as being. A botanist considers the tree as a plant; a metaphysician considers it as an existing thing with identity, properties and causes. These approaches concern the same reality under different questions. Metaphysics cannot tell the botanist how much water a particular tree needs.
In Thomistic thought, created things possess existence in a limited way. A tree is this living thing, not everything that could exist. Its character does not explain itself into existence. This opens a further inquiry into dependence and its ultimate explanation. It is a starting point for an argument, not an immediate proof of every Christian belief.
God is consequently not understood as the largest member of a class alongside trees and stars. The claim is that he is the source of the existence of every creature. Whether that claim is justified requires the arguments about causality, existence and divine simplicity.
Distinctions and safeguards
Being is not the same as goodness of conduct. A cruel act really occurs, although its cruelty is morally defective. Nor does saying that all things have being mean that everything is one substance. Shared language must respect the distinction between a person, a property and the Creator.
Does this turn an abstract word into God?
It would if someone moved directly from the general concept of being to a divine person. The concept is our way of thinking about what exists; it is not itself the cause of things. A Thomistic argument must establish a real dependence and a real cause, then explain what can be known about that cause. Calling the conclusion God cannot supply missing steps.