Becoming (philosophy)

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The Will is a fundamental concept of dialectical logic , the procedural nature of the world , the emergence and passing away of beings , things and states to describe. In contrast to change, becoming means an event that develops from itself. Starting from this concept, philosophical thinking tries to interpret processuality and changeability .

Greek philosophy

Parmenides and Heraclitus

In ancient philosophy , Heraclitus already dealt with the question of becoming ( Panta rhei ). For Heraclitus, the physical world is in constant motion. For the Eleat Parmenides and the Eleatism he advocates, there is only being. Change and becoming are illusions.

Plato

For Plato , the sensual appearances are in constant evolution. The ideas, however, are unchangeable. In the dialogue with Sophist Plato tries to refute Parmenides' thesis that there is no non-being (and thus no becoming).

Aristotle

Aristotle distinguishes several meanings of becoming: on the one hand, becoming as a transition from possibility to reality, on the other hand, the four forms of change: 1. Substantial change (arising and passing away); 2. the qualitative change; 3. the quantitative change and 4. the change of location (the movement in the sense of the word).

Modern times

Hegel

In Hegel's dialectical logic, becoming is the unity of being and nothing .

“ Nothing is as this immediate, equal to itself, and vice versa, the same thing that being is. The truth of being as well as of nothing is therefore the unity of both; this unity is becoming . "

- Hegel : Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences , § 88

In describing being and nothing , Hegel works out the following:

  • Attributes of being:
    • pure thought,
    • an immediate,
    • simple and indefinite,
    • the beginning.
  • Attributes of nothingness:
    • pure abstraction,
    • right away,
    • equal to yourself,
    • the absolute negative.

He now combines both mental determinations to form the unity of becoming.

Modern physics

In modern physics or in its natural-philosophical interpretation, the following is discussed, among other things:

  • whether, on the basis of the Minkowski world, events and not places or times represent the actual reality ( modern Eleatism );
  • what follows from McTaggart's time theory ;
  • whether the second law of thermodynamics proves a time sequence;
  • whether the "now" has a physical or just a psychological meaning.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Jürgen Mittelstraß : Werden , in: Jürgen Mittelstraß (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia Philosophy and Philosophy of Science. 2nd Edition. Volume 8: Th - Z. Stuttgart, Metzler 2018, ISBN 978-3-476-02107-6 , pp. 459 - 461

literature

  • Jürgen Mittelstraß : Becoming , in: Jürgen Mittelstraß (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia Philosophy and Philosophy of Science. 2nd Edition. Volume 8: Th - Z. Stuttgart, Metzler 2018, ISBN 978-3-476-02107-6 , pp. 459 - 461 (with a detailed list of works and literature).
  • Anton Hügli , Poul Lübcke (Ed.): Philosophielexikon. People and concepts of occidental philosophy from antiquity to the present. Adult edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2013 (rororo; 55689; Rowohlts Enzyklopädie), ISBN 978 3 499 55689 0 , pp. 946 - 949: Werden (with lit.verz.)