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Being

Being is a central notion in ontology, the branch of philosophy that studies what there is and what it means for something to exist. It contrasts with particular beings, or entities, and with the act or condition of existence itself. The questions “What is being?” and “Why is there something rather than nothing?” have generated diverse theories about the nature of reality, identity, and change. In some contexts, Being with a capital B is used to denote a more fundamental sense of existence beyond everyday objects.

Historically, early Greek thinkers distinguished between Being and beings. Parmenides argued that true Being is unchanging

Twentieth-century phenomenology and existentialism, especially Martin Heidegger, reframed Being as linked to human existence, meaning, authenticity,

and
indivisible,
while
Heraclitus
emphasized
becoming
and
flux.
Aristotle
advanced
a
comprehensive
account
of
being
through
categories
and
substances,
developing
the
idea
of
being
qua
being—the
study
of
what
it
means
to
be
in
the
most
general
sense.
In
the
medieval
period,
Thomas
Aquinas
synthesized
Aristotle
with
Christian
theology,
treating
existence
as
something
beings
have
and
arguing
for
the
primacy
of
a
necessary
being,
God.
In
modern
philosophy,
figures
such
as
Descartes
and
Kant
challenged
earlier
certainties
and
shifted
attention
to
the
conditions
for
knowledge
and
the
status
of
objects
within
experience.
and
mortality.
Since
then,
various
currents
in
analytic
ontology,
process
philosophy,
and
debates
over
realism
and
anti-realism
continue
to
probe
what
it
means
to
be,
how
beings
are
categorized,
and
how
language
and
science
shape
our
understanding
of
Being.