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1 General usage

In modern English usage, being means conscious entity. (See also I think, therefore I am.) While this clearly includes all animal life and any spiritual beings that might exist, there is currently no conclusive scientific evidence as to whether or not plants, minerals or viruses are conscious. In critical theory the term liberal subject is used as a synonym for being.

2 Being in philosophy

In the more general philosophical sense, a being is anything that can be said to ' be' in various senses of the word 'be.' 'Be' is a word, like many other words, that has different senses. So there are different senses of the word "be," and accordingly, one might say, there are different "kinds" of beings, or ways of being.

For philosophic consideration of the nature of "being" in a verbal sense, see ontology.

2.1 Aristotle's categories of being

AristotleAristotle ( Greek Αριστοτλης Aristotelēs) ( 384 BCE March 7, 322 BCE) was a Greek scientist and philosopher. Along with Plato, he is often considered to be one of the two most influential philo is famous for having distinguished various sorts of beings. See category of beingIn metaphysics (in particular, ontology), the different kinds or ways of being are called categories of being or simply categories. According to the Aristotelian tradition, a being is anything that can be said to be in the various senses of this word..

2.2 Being in continental philosophy and existentialism

Some philosophers deny that the concept of "being" has any meaning at all, since we only define an object's existence by its relation to other objects, and actions it undertakes. The term "I am" has no meaning in the English language; it must have an action or relation appended to it. This in turn has led to the thought that "being" and nothingNothing is the lack or absence of anything. Nothing" and " zero" are closely related but not identical concepts. The term "nothing" is rarely used mathematically, though it could be said that a set contains nothing if and only if it is the empty set, in wness are closely related, developed in existential philosophy.

Existentialist philosophers such as Sartre, as well as continental philosopersContinental philosophy is a general term for several related philosophical traditions that (notionally) originated in continental Europe, in contrast with Anglo-American analytic philosophy. Continental philosophy includes phenomenology, existentialism, p such as Hegel and Heidegger have also written extensively on the concept of being, distinguishing between the being of objects ( being in itself) and the being of people ( Geist in Hegel, Dasein in Heidegger, and Existence or being for others and fallout being for itself in Sartre).

3 Further reading

Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit
Heidegger, Being and Time
Sartre, Essays in Existentialism and Being and Nothingness

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