Concept
Becoming (philosophy)
Overview
philosophical concept
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Becoming (philosophy) is discussed.
As the first concrete thought-term, Becoming is the first adequate vehicle of truth. In the history of philosophy, this stage of the logical Idea finds its analogue in the system of Heraclitus.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Logic of Hegel
names the idea; states what it is; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Becoming is inventing, willing, self-denying, self-overcoming; no subject but an action, it places things, it is creative, no "causes and effects." Art is the will to overcome Becoming, it is a process of eternalising, but short-sighted, always according to the perspective, repeating, as it were in a small way, the tendency of the whole.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Will to Power
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
This universal principle is better characterized as Becoming, the truth of Being; since everything is and is not, Heraclitus hereby expressed that everything is Becoming. Not merely does origination belong to it, but passing away as well; both are not independent, but identical.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
To these three ways of seeing correspond three categories of words: _adjectives_, _substantives_, and _verbs_, which are the primordial elements of language. Adjectives and substantives therefore symbolize _states_. But the verb itself, if we keep to the clear part of the idea it calls up, hardly expresses anything else. * * * * * Now, if we try to characterize more precisely our natural attitude towards Becoming…
Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution
names the idea; states what it is
SOCRATES: I am about to speak of a high argument, in which all things are said to be relative; you cannot rightly call anything by any name, such as great or small, heavy or light, for the great will be small and the heavy light--there is no single thing or quality, but out of motion and change and admixture all things are becoming relatively to one another, which 'becoming' is by us incorrectly called being, but is…
Plato, Theaetetus
names the idea; states what it is; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Philosophers who discussed Becoming (philosophy)
Related ideas
- Ancient philosophy
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- Second law of thermodynamics
- Heraclitus
- Metaphysics
- Plato
- Parmenides
- State of affairs (philosophy)
- J. M. E. McTaggart
- World
- Entity
- Essence
- Property (philosophy)
- Dialectic
- Eleatics
- Sophist (dialogue)
- Nothing
- Existence
- Panta rhei (doctrine)
Place in the tradition
Part of Neoplatonism.