The fundamental phenomenon of everything that is; that whereby an entity is. Being (esse) is the most fundamental concept of philosophy — and at the same time the most difficult to grasp: everything that is has being, yet being itself is not an entity among other entities.
Thomistic ontology distinguishes being (esse) from the entity (ens): being is the principle through which an entity exists; the entity is that which participates in being. The Form of Existence and the Mode of Being are ways in which being is actualized. Absolute Being is that being which has the ground of its being in itself (ipsum esse subsistens), whereas every other entity receives its being from another (cf. Bexten 2017, pp. 130–140).
Ontological classification:
- Subordinate concepts: Form of Existence, Mode of Being
Ontological relations:
- is presupposed by: Entity
Chapter assignment: Chapter 4: Personhood, Chapter 2: Method
Sources: Generated by querying the Personhood ontology.
Further sources:
- Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q. 3, a. 4 (ipsum esse subsistens — being as fundamental act)
- Aristotle, Metaphysics IV, 1–2; VII, 1 (the entity as entity, substance as primary being)
See also
Entity, Absolute Being, Possible Being, Mode of Being, Form of Existence, Concept of Being, Act, Potency, Substance, Metaphysics, Thomas von Aquin, Aristoteles, Actuality