Ontology

Understanding Being

Modes of Existence

Let us draw some conclusions. Thus, when we speak of the existence of something, we imbue this term with various meanings.

Existence as the sensual given of the manifested world and self-consciousness (manifest reality).
Existence as a non-contradictory given of an object in thought (essential determination and objective ideal being).
Existence as the conceptual presence of a cause that determines the cosmic order, particularly that which is revealed to us (objective reality).
Existence as the conceived given of the subject of consciousness, presented to us as the Other-similar-to-me, that is, as a rational being (subjective reality of the conscious "I").
Existence encompasses all those images produced subjectively, including our own voluntary imagination (imagined reality).

The manifested reality is undeniable and cannot be opposed; it is maximally credible and experienced directly. Proving existence in this sense is only possible through the experiential encounter with this given. In thought, however, we produce virtual objects that may or may not be available in experience; nevertheless, their scope is limited to credibly impossible objects (those that possess contradictory attributes). Some of these determinations—ideal objects—are grasped solely through thought, and there is no direct counterpart for them in experience; however, their status of existence is initially unclear. Clarifying their interconnections and non-contradictoriness constitutes the essence of theoretical analysis. Ideal objects organize thought, yet the question of their correspondence to objective reality is problematic, and such correspondence can only be established post facto through sensual given and can be conceived only hypothetically (that is, it is not certain).

Among such idealizations are the concepts of God and objective reality, which we conceive as the causes of the cosmic order and the objective given of the manifested world. A variety of real reality is the subjective reality of the Other. In the concept of God, objective and subjective reality converge, and this convergence can be interpreted as a conceptual dual cause of the diversity of worldly phenomena as objectively existent and their given-ness in the consciousness of the I-subject as mental images. Denying objective reality leads to contradiction; reality is undeniably reconstructed from sensual experience as the presence of objects that determine this experience. However, the determination of such objects is mediated by the thought of ideal being and is never given in the immediate certainty of a sensual image. In other words, we perceive not objective reality as such, but its ideal model imposed upon the manifested given of the world.

Thus, our world is birthed for us by some mysterious principle, which we can never fully grasp in its finite determination. In our consciousness, we reliably discover our own existence in the personal experiences of the world's given-ness. The nature of consciousness remains an enigma.