The unconditioned, self-subsistent, necessary being. Required philosophically (not theologically) as the ultimate ground of contingent being. In the Thomistic tradition: ipsum esse subsistens.
Absolute Being stands opposed to Possible Being. All contingent being could also not be. Absolute Being, by contrast, is necessary and carries the ground of its being within itself.
The question of Absolute Being arises from the contingency of all finite being. No contingent entity can have the sufficient ground of its being within itself. The chain of dependencies must be grounded in a last term that is no longer dependent — in Absolute Being. This is not a theological postulate, but a philosophical necessity (cf. Bexten 2017, pp. 186–192).
Ontological classification:
- Superordinate concept: entity, archphenomenon
Ontological relations:
- is the ultimate ground of contingent being
Chapter assignment: Chapter 4: Personhood (German)
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology.
Further sources:
- Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae I, q. 2, a. 3 (the five ways of demonstrating the existence of God as ipsum esse subsistens). Transl. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. New York: Benziger Bros., 1947.
- Seifert, Josef (1987): Back to ‘Things in Themselves’. A Phenomenological Foundation for Classical Realism. London/New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul (on the philosophical ultimate grounding of being).
See also: Being, Entity, Possible Being, Substance, Person, Act and Potency, Metaphysics, Thomas Aquinas