Arseniy CHANISHEV  (TCHANIHEV)
Professor
Faculty of Philosophy Moscow   State University

ONTOLOGY


report


THE PROBLEM OF NON-BEING

The problem of the correlation of Being and Non-Being has been important for passing the entire history of philosophy.
This correlation is like the following:
Non-Being is a part of Being (just as the hole of the donut is a part of the donut), the "No" is a part of "Yes".
Being is a part of Non-Being (as if Non-Being were partly a patch-work or was partly darned and patched), "Yes" is part of "No".
Being and Non-Being exclude one another, "Yes" is not "No", and "No" is not "Yes".
Being and Non-Being overlap in part, some "Yes" belongs with "No" and some "No" with "Yes".
Being and Non-Being, while excluding each other, are both parts of something larger, which still has no name.
And also the following:
Everything that exists, exist.
Everything that exists partakes of existence more than of non-existence.
Everything that exists exists while not existing and everything that does not exist, does not exist while existing.
Everything that exists partakes of non-existence more than of existence.
Everything that exists does not exist (in the authentic meaning of that word).
Some philosophers believe that Being has priority over Non-Being, but others think that Non-Being has priority over Being.
It is known that Parmenides claimed that only Being was conceivable and could be spoken of, and therefore that it existed, whereas Non-Being is inconceivable and cannot be spoken of and therefore does not exist.
But Buddhism and Taoism teach that Non-Being is prior to Being.
Lao Tze contended that all entities existing in the world originate from Being, but Being derives itself from Non-Being.
Christianity teaches that God is the Absolute Being who has created the world from nothing.
In Russian philosophy the problem of Being and Non-Being has been connected with the problem of the being or the non-being of God or, in a softer form, with the problem of the presence or the absence of God in the world, in society and in human beings.
In connection with this, Russian philosophical outlook has undergone two periods in its history.
The first period (till 1917) is the time of the prevalence of belief that God is present in the world, society and in human beings - the thesis.
The second period (1917-1991) is the time of the prevalence of belief that God is absent in the world, society and in human beings - the antithesis.


HERE ARE OUR THESES:

1. Being has no foundation in itself.
2. The foundation of Being is in Non-Being.
3. Non-Being is prior to Being because Non-Being cannot arise from Being, while Being arises from Non-Being as its simple and general self-negation.
4. Non-Being is absolute because nothing can limit Non-Being but itself.
5. Non-Being is limitless in all senses.
6. Non-Being is the most firm condition because nothing is more firm than what does not exist
7. Being is secondary because Being is the non-being of Non-Being.
8. At the same time Non-Being is not transformed into Being, neither as the whole nor in its parts.
9. As the non-being of Non-Being. Being is not firm and is unstable.
10.  Time is the consequence of the   weakness and instability of Being.
10. Otherwise: since Being exists by not existing, and does not exist by existing, Being is Time.
11. Everything that exists, exists in Time.
12. Therefore everything, that is, has arisen and will perish.
13. But the arising and the perishing are not of equal strength, since everything that arises is temporary and everything that perishes vanishes forever.
14. Therefore it is Perishability that is the main principal of Being.
15. Being is prior to Consciousness because Consciousness is even less stable than Being.
16. The foundation of Consciousness is Memory because Memory is the most stable part of Consciousness.
17. It is precisely due to Memory that the illusion of eternity and the inalterability arises.
18. Due to Memory the end of something does not perish with its end. The perishing of this or that is generalized as Perishability.
19. The realization of Perishability of Being is the source of Suffering.
20. Suffering is the principal attribute of Consciousness.
21. Suffering and Fear in the face of Non-Being make the Mind create an illusory world of Absolute Being, that is the World of God.
22. Thus, the Concsiousness of Being arises - essentially a religious Consciousness.
23. All earlier Cultures (and Philosophy as part of Culture), are the different versions of the Consciousness of Being, in fact the Consciousness of God.
24. But God is absent.
25. Therefore the Consciousness of Non-Being arises. The Consciousness of the Non-Being makes Being transparent, and it sees Non-Being behind Being.
26. Fear turns into Terror.
27. Everything perishes if there is no Courage of Non-Being.
28. The Courage of Non-Being is the supreme Courage.
29. The Courage of Non-Being is the Courage of the Man of Non-Being
30. The Man of Being sees Non-Being only in its particular forms: unhappiness, separation, death and so on.
31. The Man of Non-Being discerns     Non-Being behind its every particular emergence in Being.
32. The Courage of the Man of Being is the Courage to be despite everything (in spite of all particular evils).
33. The Courage of the Man of Non-Being is the Courage to be despite Nothing.
34. My Philosophy of Non-Being, or rather my Anti-philosophy of Non-Being, helps the Man of Non-Being survive. As for him, life is like a black square, and he rejoices in any sparcling point on it, whereas for the Man of Being life is like a white square and he is upset by the smallest dark spot.