What is existence? This word means "occur," "turn out," "arise," "appear," "speak," "go out." Such an exact translation from Latin. Unlike essence (nature, quintessence, primary principle), that is, its aspect, is an aspect of any being. What is existence like? This concept is often combined with the word "being." However, it differs from it, which consists in the fact that it is an exclusively aspect of the being, in being it is usually understood in the meaning of everything that exists in the world.
What philosophers say
For Baumgarten, the concept of essence or nature coincides with reality (as existence). For thinkers as a whole, the issue of proof of existence occupies a special place. He stands at the center of the philosophy of existentialism Camus, Sartre, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Jaspers, Marseilles and many others. It designates in this case the unique and immediate experience of the existence of man.
Thus, in Heidegger, existence can be attributed to a certain being (Dasein). It must be considered under the special conditions of analytics of existence, and not categories, which is used for other things.
In the dualism of existence and nature, the scholastic sees a fundamentally bifurcated natural universe that was created and defined only in God. The origin or appearance of something is not inferred from the essence, but is ultimately determined by the creative will of God.
What is the problem
As a rule, existence is contrasted with the concept of essence. The second tradition comes from the Renaissance (if not earlier). A variety of disciplines in science conduct his research.
Science in the traditional sense of existence makes attempts to discover substance. Mathematics (one of the exact disciplines) has been particularly successful in this area. For her, the conditions for the existence of something are not so important, as the very ability to do various operations with the fundamentals.
Moreover, existence does not mean an abstract and distant look at these matters, but focuses on their reality. As a result, a certain distance arises between the fundamental principles of abstract and existential reality - the essence of existence.
At the center of the teaching of philosophy about people is the problem of human nature. Its discovery is implied in the very definition of absolutely any subject. Talking about the functions of this subject and its meaning will not work without it.
In the process of scientific development, representatives of philosophy tried to find fundamental differences between people and animals and gave an explanation of human nature, using a variety of qualities.
Why we are not them
We have a lot of similarities with animals, both in the anatomical structure and in behavior, the manifestation of emotions and feelings. Both we and they strive to form couples in order to give offspring, take care of our children, create some kind of ties with fellow tribesmen, and build a certain society. He is the best only from our positions. Perhaps, on the part of animals, the principles of organizing their society are much more reasonable or more viable. Remember how complex the hierarchy is for hyenas or chimpanzees.
But a person differs from an animal in its smile, flat nails, the presence of religion, some skills and a huge reserve of knowledge. It is important to note that in this case, the human essence is sought to be determined on the basis of those signs that are its difference from the nearest species, that is, from the side, and not based on the person himself.
This method of determining a person is not entirely correct from the point of view of methodology, since the essence of any particular subject can be determined by studying the immanent way of the form of existence of this nature, as well as the laws of its existence from the inside.
What is society
Are all the signs that distinguish a person from an animal have serious significance? Science today indicates that the origins of the historical development of various forms of human existence lie in labor or work activity, which is carried out at all times in the framework of production in society.
This means that the individual is not capable of engaging in any kind of productive activity without directly or indirectly entering into relations with other people. The totality of such relationships forms a human society. Animals also build ties with their fellow tribesmen, but they do not create any products.
What is man
With the consistent evolution of human labor and production in society, the connections of people in it are also being improved. An individual develops exactly as much as he accumulates, improves, and implements his own relations in society.
It is worth emphasizing that the full totality of human relations in a society of people is implied, that is, ideological (or ideal), material, spiritual, and so on.
This moment is important for methodology, since it leads to the conclusion that a person needs to be understood not in relation to any ideals or vulgar materialism, but dialectically. That is, you should not reduce its significance only in relation to the economy or to reason and the like. Man is a creature that accumulates all these qualities in himself. This nature is both rational and producing. At the same time, it is moral, cultural, political, and so on.
Historical aspect
Man in and of itself combines, to one degree or another, the full range of relationships within society. Thus, he realizes his own social essence. A completely different aspect of the question of the types of existence is that man is a product of the history of his species.
Such people as they are now did not immediately appear from where. They are the final point of development of society in a historical framework. That is, we are now talking about the integrity of one individual and the entire human race.
With all this, each individual is not only the result of society and relations in it. He himself is the creator of such a relationship. It turns out that he is both an object and a subject of social relations at the same time. In man the realization of unity, as well as the totality of the object and subject, takes place.
In addition, there is an interaction between society and man at the dialectical level. It turns out that the individual is a kind of micro-community, that is, the manifestation of society at a certain level, and at the same time it is a person and his relationships within society.
Existential problem
You can talk about the nature of man in relation to social activity. Outside of it, as well as outside of various relations in society and simple communication as a form of realization, an individual simply cannot be considered a person to the full.
However, the human essence is not fully reduced to the essence, which in reality manifests itself and is revealed in existence. The nature of each individual is a general characteristic of the human race; existence is always something individual.
What is existence?
Existence is the being of man as a nature, manifested in a full variety of properties, forms and species. Such complete integrity finds expression in the fact that a person combines three main structures: mental, biological and social.
If you remove one of these three factors, then the individual will not. In any case, the development of people's abilities and their full formation will have a connection with such concepts as the volitional aspirations of the human "I", natural talents, and the surrounding society.
The very aspect of the mode of existence is not inferior in importance to the problem of human nature. She received the most complete disclosure in the philosophy of existentialism, which is interpreted as the being of the individual, combined with going beyond the categories of our really individual world.
The science of existentialism
As noted above, existence is always something individual. Although it implies joint life with someone, but a person in any scenario will meet death only in private with himself.
For this reason, existentialism considers our society and the individual as two opposing images that are in a permanent state of conflict. If a person is a person, then society is an impersonal existence.
Real life is the personal being of the individual, his freedom and desire to get beyond. Existence in society (in the concept of existentialism) is not genuine life, it is the desire to establish one's “I” in society, accepting its framework and laws. The social part of human nature and its real life in existentialism contradict each other.
Jean Paul Sartre said that existence goes before the essence. Only upon meeting death face to face, one can find out what was “real” in human life and what was not.
The formation of man
It is worth noting that in the thesis "existence goes before the essence" contains a certain pathos of humanism. Here there is such a meaning that a person himself determines what will ultimately come out of him, as well as the whole world in which his personal being will be.
The thing is that each individual finds his essence only in the process of his socialization. At the same time, he becomes an increasingly large subject of the surrounding society, more and more exposed to his influence. Following this concept, we must accept that the newborn is only a “candidate” for the role of man. His essence is not given to him from birth. Its formation occurs in the process of being. In addition, only with the accumulation of sociocultural experience does an individual more and more become a person.
Also true is the existentialist position that the real meaning and true meaning of the life of a particular person is determined only "at the end of the path", when it is finally clear what exactly he did on this earth and what the fruits of his labors really are.
The meaning of one life
This is a very important philosophical question. Often, the true meaning of one person can only be discovered some time after his death. As you can see, it is not so easy to completely agree with the existentialist assertion that existence is in front of the essence, because it implies complete internal freedom and the fact that man is nothing.
Moreover, in any case, he is already "something." It continuously develops over the years of existence in the social environment where it falls. She leaves her mark on him and puts her framework on him.
For this reason, the very concept of individual being is impossible without the participation of a system of relations within a particular society, which are its essence.