Being

as 'action to be'

Morphological Analysis

• Etymon: Middle English being: 'action to be'
• Morpheme breakdown: be + -ing → 'action to be'.
• Functional cognate: Existing: 'action to exist'

Essential Definition

The essential, morphological definition of being" is 'action to be'.

Semantic Context

• Conventional sense: A living creature. (Note: Semantic drift from essential meaning)
• Essential meaning (my usage): action to be

Philosophical Significance

In essence, the primary usage benefit is this: It replaces a noun-based metaphysics (which leads to puzzles about substances, properties, and emptiness) with a verb-based metaphysics. This directly resolves or dissolves a host of classical philosophical problems by changing the foundational question from 'What is it?' to 'What is it doing?'

Usage in This Lexicon

When I use the word being in my work, I mean exactly 'action to be'. This definition:

• Escapes the Substance Trap: It automatically prevents the reification of 'being' into a static thing or essence (ousia). This sidesteps millennia of philosophical problems stemming from trying to define what a 'substance' is and how it persists through change.
• Makes Process Primary: It grounds all of reality in dynamism by default. Existence is framed not as a state that then happens to change, but as change itself—a continuous, future-oriented activity. This makes process, not stasis, the fundamental that needs to be explained.
• Unifies the Concept Across Scales: The same definition ('action to be') applies coherently to a quantum particle, an organism, and a social system. It provides a single functional descriptor for existence at any level of complexity, as each is an activity of maintaining itself through relation and difference.
• Is Intrinsically Relational: An 'action' is always an action in relation to or upon something. This definition builds relation into the core of existence, eliminating the possibility of conceiving of an isolated, independent being. Being is, by definition, interactive.
• Solves the Problem of Non-Being: It elegantly addresses the ancient paradox of 'nothingness' or 'non-being'. If being is an action, then non-being is simply the cessation or absence of that specific action, not a mysterious negative substance to be defined.
• Clarifies Identity Over Time (Persistence): The question 'How does a thing remain the same while changing?' is reframed. Identity is not a static core, but the continuity of a specific pattern of action ('the action to be this'). A river persists not as the same water, but as the ongoing action to flow.
• Demystifies 'Emergence': New properties or entities emerging at higher levels of complexity are no longer mysterious. They are simply new patterns or modes of action that arise from the coordinated 'action to be' of constituent processes. Emergence is a natural consequence of the definition.
• Linguistically Empowers Precise Communication: It forces language to become more active and precise when discussing existence. Instead of saying 'a tree is', which invites essentialist questions, one is prompted to describe how it performs its 'action to be' (photosynthesizing, exchanging gases, growing), leading to more accurate description.
• Is Inherently Future-Oriented and Open-Ended: It builds teleology (purpose-as-persistence) and potential directly into the definition of existence, avoiding the need to explain how a static thing can have aims or an open future. Being, as an action to be, is intrinsically an effort aimed at its own continuation, making becoming and incompleteness fundamental, not accidental.
• Bridges Existence and Value: It creates a direct conceptual link between ontology and ethics. If to exist is to perform an 'action to be', then the 'good' for any being can be defined objectively as the successful, sustainable, or flourishing performance of that specific action. What is good for a tree is what sustains its action of photosynthesizing and growing. This grounds value in the fact of existence itself.
• Simplifies the Mind-Matter Problem: It dissolves the hard substance dualism of Descartes. Instead of two separate things (thinking substance vs. extended substance), you have one active process described at two different levels of resolution. The brain's 'action to be' is the complex electrochemical signaling of the Conference of Difference. The mind is the experiential, first-person dimension of that same action. They are not two separate 'whats' but two ways of describing the same 'how'.

Related Terms

• Existing

Sources

• Wiktionary

This definition follows morphological essentialism principles. See [[Methodology]] for details.