Ontology

The Issues of Ontology: Introduction

From the very beginning, philosophers have sought to unravel the hidden order of the cosmos, aiming to foresee the course of events and exert influence over them. However, the complexity of the world's riddle indicates that we may be mistaken, and the laws of the universe are not self-evident. What we speak of, what we think, and even what we firmly believe may not correspond to reality. Thus, what is our thought concerning the actual world, how does the illusion arise, and what then is the true, non-illusory world? Thought is always a thought about something, about an object that, in some sense, exists. The question of the relationship between thought and the object it contemplates, or, in other words, the connection between thinking and being, is examined in ontology. Literally, this term means the study (logos) of what is (being). Ontology is the doctrine of what exists and what it means for something to exist.

Initially, the question of existence was understood as the distinction between what truly exists and what is merely spoken of, thought about, or imagined by someone, yet does not actually exist. But what does this reality, this true existence, signify? Any apparition, any illusion, is always a visibility for someone who perceives that vision. By considering something illusory or pretentious and denying the existence of such an object, we nonetheless think of it; it is presented to us as a vision or a thought of a certain content. Therefore, the imagined world and the world as it is given to us, the world-for-us and the world-in-us, can be contrasted with a world-in-itself. How do these worlds relate to one another, and to the consciousness of the being that thinks, perceives, experiences, imagines in sensations, and encompasses them in thought? How is the world we live in truly arranged? What is real? What determines the flow of world events? Why is the world presented to us in phenomena as it is, and not otherwise? What is our consciousness? What is the I-subject that perceives the world?

In these questions, there lies something more than merely providing a description of the regularities in presented reality, in the reality we perceive, and something more than clarifying the correspondence of statements about events to the events themselves. At its core, theoretical thinking relies on concepts that extend beyond available experience; the mind traverses beyond sensory data (this capacity is otherwise referred to as transcendental). When we contemplate triangles and the universe, aliens and centaurs, the future and the past, the soul or God, infinity or matter—does the content of thought regarding their existence remain the same? Do they exist in the same sense as tables, pears, clouds, and damp napkins? Even when we think about nothing, about non-being, what is the subject of that thought?

But ultimately, is it worth the trouble? And if we wish to obtain some answers to these questions, what do we seek to clarify? What is unclear here, and how can we justify our understanding? I hope the following outline of ontology will shed some light on these matters, and there is no better way to grasp the essence of a game than to play it.

Philosophers of the past were convinced that there are such concepts from which the existence of the objects thought within them logically follows as objectively real. Real—that is, those that exist independently, regardless of whether we perceive them or not, and regarding which our thoughts can be erroneous. Thus, through logical analysis, one can prove (or refute) the existence of God, clarify the fundamental principles of the universe, the essence of the soul, the origin of the world, and the direction of worldly processes. The world must, as philosophers believed, be subordinate to reason; hence, the actual is grasped through logic, and the mind in some way reveals the real world in the concepts it formulates.

One cannot derive the world's order in its logically necessary veracity solely from the description of phenomena. The laws of nature and the designs of God are articulated in the language of logic; therefore, it is logically possible to justify the necessity and reality of the existence of certain beings. This search for a kind of philosophical "perpetual motion machine" guided the aspirations of hundreds of enthusiasts. However, thinking, while constructing ultimate concepts and attempting to conceptualize the world, constantly encounters paradoxes and internal contradictions. The instruments of thought are words that signify something. If they generate confusion, then the very hunter of the world's regularities becomes ensnared in these webs. It is not so easy to extricate oneself from them. Along the path of theoretical construction, several fundamental difficulties arise, questions that confront the thinker.

Foremost is the foundational question regarding the relationship between the I-subject of thought and the sensory images and ideal objects of understanding it generates, the causes that produce them, and the relationship between the "internal" (subjective) and "external" (objective) worlds. Next is the question of modes of being, that is, different ways of conceiving something as existing and the development of a system of general ultimate concepts of theoretical thought. Since we conceive the world as orderly, and phenomena are given as a stream of successive changes, the framework of theoretical contemplation must also address the issue of the determination (definiteness) of world phenomena: why does everything happen as it does, and not otherwise? And since events are changeable, the fundamental logic must distinguish specific concepts that express different forms of this changeability. Thus, four fundamental questions of ontology arise.

Secondary questions include the classical inquiries regarding (1) the material basis of the world (matter); (2) the role of subjective will in the world process (human free will and the presence of a creator God), concerning the relationship between natural reality, processes of self-organization, and rational ordering directed by the decisions of the subject, that is, the interpretation of the "laws" of the universe; (3) the spatial-temporal organization of world order; (4) the non-contradictory thinking of infinities; (5) the existence of the soul as an autonomous bearer of sensitivity and consciousness; (6) the origin of the world. Each of these questions generates a network of interconnected problems, discussions, and intertwining traditions of their interpretation, with each carrying its own conceptual order and employed terminology. An analysis of this entire intertwining goes beyond the scope of an overview lecture, where we will focus only on the essence of ontology.