The term being (from the Latin esse, “to be”) designates that which is, that is, everything that possesses existence, whatever its mode of existence may be. In metaphysics, being is the most universal and fundamental notion, since it applies to everything that is real or can be conceived as real.
More particularly
Being is the first object of the intellect. Before distinguishing things according to their properties, forms, or species, the mind apprehends that they are. For this reason, Aristotle affirms that being is said in many ways, while the scholastic tradition regards being as the most universal concept available to human thought.
Being, however, must not be confused with beings. Beings are the particular realities that exist; being designates that by which they exist. This distinction, already present in Antiquity but developed more fully in medieval metaphysics, makes it possible to distinguish existence itself from the things that exist.
Metaphysical reflection thus leads to the distinction between essence and existence. Essence answers the question: “What is this thing?”; existence answers the question: “Is it?” In contingent beings, essence does not imply existence. A man, a tree, or a mountain could fail to exist. Their being is therefore given or communicated to them.
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, this distinction between essence and existence constitutes the key to metaphysics. Creatures possess being without being Being itself. They participate in being without possessing it in its fullness. Their existence is received and limited by their particular nature.
This doctrine leads to the distinction between being by participation and Being by essence. Creatures are because they receive being; God is because He is Being itself. Whereas created beings possess existence, God is Subsistent Being Itself (ipsum esse subsistens). In Him, essence and existence are one.
Classical metaphysics thus regards being as the most fundamental act of every reality. A thing cannot act, be known, or possess properties unless it first exists. Being is therefore the primary act upon which all others depend. St. Thomas defines it as “the actuality of all acts and the perfection of all perfections.”
This primacy of being makes it possible to understand the profound unity of reality. Despite their infinite diversity, all beings participate in the same act of being. This participation grounds their common intelligibility and makes all knowledge possible.
In the traditional perspective, being also possesses a symbolic dimension. Because created beings do not possess their being as their own, they point toward the source from which they receive it. Their existence manifests something of a principle that transcends them. Being thus appears as the first sign of the Principle, the first theophany, and the foundation of all cosmic symbolism.
This participation in being confers upon the world an ontological transparency. Visible realities are never closed upon themselves; they always refer to a deeper reality that grounds them. Every being thus becomes a silent witness to a source that causes it to be.
This perspective is shared by the great metaphysical traditions. In Plato, sensible beings participate in intelligible realities; in Plotinus, they proceed from the One; in Christian thought, they continually receive their being from the Creator. Despite their doctrinal differences, these approaches converge in the idea that created being is never self-sufficient.
Modern thought has often shifted attention from being to knowledge, consciousness, or language. The fundamental question then becomes not “What is?” but “How do we know?” or “How do we speak?” Classical metaphysics nevertheless reminds us that all knowledge presupposes being and that nothing can be thought unless it is, in one way or another.
Being thus appears as the ultimate foundation of all metaphysics. It is at once the most universal and the most mysterious of notions: the most universal because everything that exists is; the most mysterious because existence itself cannot be reduced to any other concept. To reflect upon being is ultimately to inquire into the foundation of all reality and into the very source of everything that is.
See also: Absolute, Contingency, Creation, Essence, Existence, Metaphysics, Participation, Principle, Substance, Theophany.
Further Reading
• Parmenides, Poem, Fragments VIII and following.
• Aristotle, Metaphysics, Books IV and XII.
• Plotinus, Enneads, V, 1–5.
• Thomas Aquinas, De ente et essentia; Summa Theologiae, I, q. 3; I, q. 44.
• Étienne Gilson, Being and Some Philosophers.
• Martin Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics.
• Jean Borella, The Metaphysics of Symbol (Métaphysique du symbole); The Crisis of Religious Symbolism.
• Wolfgang Smith, The Wisdom of Ancient Cosmology.
• Bruno Bérard, Metaphysics for Everyone, Angelico Press, 2024 (trans. Métaphysique pour tous, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2022, It. trans. Sui sentieri della metafisica; Sp. trans. ¿Qué es la metafísica?; Ger. trans. Was ist Metaphysik? Zwischen Ambition und Wirklichkeit).