Starting Philosophic Problem :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Starting Philosophic Problem ABSTRACT: The starting philosophic problem is related to the categories ‘being’ and ‘nonbeing.’ This is the problem of the relationship between being and nonbeing. The cardinal question of philosophy is: ‘What can be considered to be primary, being or nonbeing?’ In the history of philosophy, it is possible to speak about two basic philosophic paradigms: philosophy of being and philosophy of nonbeing. This paper is an elaboration of the ‘philosophy of nonbeing.’ One of the most fundamental problems of philosophy is related with the most meaningful philosophic notions, that is, with the categories of "being" and "non-being". The notion "being" is the philosopohic notion that denotes: 1) something that is existing, 2) the totality of really existing things, the existing reality. "Non-being" is the other philosophic notion that denotes: 1) absence of something, 2) all things non-existent in reality, non-existent reality. The form of manifestation for being is "something" and the non-being manifests itself in the form of "nothing". So, according to the author, the most fundamental philosophic problem is the problem of the relationship between the being and the non-being, it is the problem of relationship between these two categories, "being" and "non-being". In the first line, this problem brings up the question about the existence of any real things existing in the real world: things that were existed, exist, and will exist; also put forward is the question about the existence of the world as a whole. In the final account, it is a matter of the problem of existence as such. The German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (XVII-th century) attacked this problem in the following way: he states that the first and cardinal question must be expressed in the form: Why there exists "something", but not "nothing"? A similar thought was expressed later by the German philosophers Friedrich Schelling (XIX-th century) and Martin Heidegger (XX-th century). The problem of the relationship between being and non-being turns to be the starting philosophic problem, inasmuch as all other philosophic problems and questions are meaningful in cases when it is necessary to solve this problem that deals with the matter of principle, more specifically, the existence of things, phenomena, world on the whole, object and subject of cognition. The very solution of the problem of relationship between the being and the non-being is the basic and key solution for a number of philosophic problems such as: world origin, world space-time structure formation, causes and mechanisms of motion and development, build-up and destruction of objective forms, human being life and death, meaning of human being existence, mankind survival, and others.