Single Idea 11277

[catalogued under 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / e. Being and nothing]

Full Idea

We may be unfamiliar with the question 'What is being?' because there appear to be no contrastive questions of the form: how do beings differ from things that are not beings?

Gist of Idea

Maybe 'What is being? is confusing because we can't ask what non-being is like

Source

Vassilis Politis (Aristotle and the Metaphysics [2004], 4.1)

Book Reference

Politis,Vasilis: 'Aristotle and the Metaphysics' [Routledge 2004], p.93


A Reaction

We can, of course, contrast actual beings with possible beings, or imaginary beings, or even logically impossible beings, but in those cases 'being' strikes me as an entirely inappropriate word.