Real Being and Logical Being

Book First

Being

Chapter II

Primary Determinations of Being

In the last Chapter we learned the meaning of the idea of being; here we are to study the thing itself. Being is not classified as of different kinds, for, as we have seen, it is transcendental and soars above such classification. Still, there are various phases of being which, for want of a better word, we may call determinations. This Chapter studies the following determinations of being: Being as real and as rational or logical; being as actuality and as potentiality; being as essence and as existence. The Chapter is divided into three Articles, as follows:

• Article 1. Real Being and Logical Being
• Article 2. Actuality and Potentiality
• Article 3. Essence and Existence

Article 1. Real Being and Logical Being

a) Real Being　　b) Logical Being

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a) Real Being

Real being (called ens reale) takes its name from the Latin res (adjective form, realis) which means “thing” or “reality.” Now, as we have seen, a reality is not only something that actually exists; it is anything that can exist in nature, independently of the created mind. We say “independently of the created mind” because all things existible in nature depend upon the Divine Mind for their existence and even for their existibility. So a reality is anything that can exist without dependency upon the mind of man or of angel or of devil. For our purpose, it will be sufficient to consider reality or real being as anything that can exist, without depending for its existence upon the mind of man. For real being is capable of existence in rerum natura, as philosophers say; that is, it is capable of having existence “in the nature of things,” and not as a form, or projection, or mode-of-grasp in the human mind.

The objects which we see and feel around us are real beings; so are all substances and accidents that actually exist in the universe. Even merely possible things, however fantastic,—such as a mountain of gold or a tree a mile high,—are real beings. For, though these things are not actual (i. e., are not existent) and probably never will be, they could exist; and if they did exist, their existence would be as independent of man’s mind as the hills and trees that we behold around us here and now. They would exist in rerum natura. And everything existible in rerum natura is a real being.

b) Logical Being

Logical being (called ens logicum or ens rationis) is such being as depends for existence on the created mind, or, as we may say at once,—limiting our view to man and this world,—logical being depends upon the mind of man. The name logical is derived from the Greek logos which, among many analogous meanings, signifies “thought” and “mind.” Thus whatever has reference to the mind or to thought-processes is called logical, in the fundamental sense of that term.

Logical beings depend upon the human mind for their existence. Now, which beings are, as a fact, thus dependent? They are the following:

1. Things that cannot have real existence, but which the mind thinks of as though they were existent or existible realities. For the mind, to think at all, must think of any knowable object as a something. Thus, for example, the mind thinks of nothingness, of vacancy, of vacuity, of blindness, of darkness, of death, as though these things had existence of their own, whereas, as a fact, they have not; for they do not consist in the presence or existence of reality, but in its absence or non-existence. Try to define any of these things, and you will find that you are forced to formulate the definition in terms of something opposite and non-existent. Death and darkness may seem to the practical mind to be definite and positive realities; but they have not a real constituting essence of their own; they consist in the absence, the non-existence, of life and of light. So nothingness is not the existence or existibility of anything; it is the absence of everything. So with vacuum and vacancy; these things are defined in terms of their opposites, that is, they are defined as the absence or non-existence of their opposites. So with blindness, which is the non-existence of the power to see. The only objective existence which such things as these may have is found in the fact that they are objectively known. In other words, these things depend for such objectivity as they may possess upon the knowing mind. They are therefore rightly called logical entities or logical beings (entia logica or entia rationis).

2. Things which have neither an objective existence (or existibility) in the extramental world, nor any proper objectivity even in the mind, but which the mind, by a kind of convenient fiction, regards as knowable objects. Such a thing, for example, is “a square circle.” Here the mind merely adverts to two incompatible essences that are not and cannot be compounded in one or represented in one idea, and holds them side by side, so to speak, in a close and combining view. For “a square circle” is not conceivably existent or existible, nor is it conceivable as the definite absence of an essence as in the case of nothingness, blindness, or darkness. It is merely the mind’s view of two opposed essences seen in conjunction (but not in compound) and fictitiously regarded as though they constituted one knowable object. In other words, the only being possessed by such a thing as “a square circle” is the logical being conferred on it by the mind.

3. The relations which the mind recognizes among its ideas. These relations are not things in rerum natura, but things in the mind, and things which depend upon the mind for being recognized or known. However just and valid such relations may be, however true a justification or “foundation” for them may exist in nature, they cannot have existence independently of the mind. We have, for example, certain modes in which the mind understands its ideas as predicable of one another. Thus the idea animal is seen by the mind to be predicable of the idea rational animal as its genus; and, conversely, the idea rational animal is seen by the mind to stand related to the idea animal as one of its species. Now this relation is essentially a thing for the mind’s grasp. It is not a thing existible apart from the mind. Therefore, it is properly said to be a logical being.

4. Ideas themselves (and judgments and reasonings), considered as entities or beings, and not in their real meaning with reference to extramental reality. Ideas do represent reality, but the idea itself is the product of the mind’s activity. So with judgments and reasonings. However true, however valid, however representative of reality which does not depend on the mind, these mental forms and acts do depend on the mind which elicits or exercises them; for without a mind in which, and by function of which, these things exist, they cannot have existence at all. Therefore, they are logical beings, notwithstanding the fact that their representative value is frequently real, that is, that many of them do represent what is actually existible in rerum natura.

Summary of the Article

This very short article has given us knowledge of important “classes” or determinations of being. We have learned what is meant by real being; we have seen that this is anything existible in rerum natura; that is, anything that exists or can exist in nature without dependency for its existence upon the human mind. We have learned the meaning of logical being, that is, of being which does depend for its existence upon the human mind. We have listed four types of logical beings.