Becoming (philosophy)

In philosophy, the concept of becoming was born in eastern ancient Greece by the philosopher Heraclitus of Hephesus, who in the Sixth century BC, said that nothing
in this world is constant except change and becoming.
His theory stands in direct contrast to Parmenides, another Greek philosopher, but from the italic Magna Grecia, who believed that the ontic changes or becoming
we perceive with our senses is deceptive, and that there is
a pure perfect and eternal being behind nature, which is
the ultimate truth. In philosophy, the word becoming
concerns a specic ontological concept which should not
be confused with process philosophy as a whole or with
the related study of process theology.[1]

as the underlying reality of the world, they constructed a

comfortable and reassuring after-world where the horror of the process of becoming was forgotten, and the
empty abstractions of reason appeared as eternal entities.

4 Quotations
Clemens Alexandrinus (Stromata, v, 105). Similar:
Plutarchus (De animae procreatione, 5 p, 1014 A) concerning Heraclitus:
This universal order, which is the same for
all, has not been made by any god or man, but
it always has been, is, and will be an ever-living
re, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures.

History

Heraclitus (c. 535 - c. 475 BC) spoke extensively about

becoming. Shortly afterwards Leucippus of Miletus similarly spoke of becoming as the movement of atoms.

5 See also
Being

The becoming ontology

Physical ontology
[2]

According to tradition, Heraclitus wrote a treatise

about nature named " " (Per phses),
About Nature, in which appears the famous aphorism 6 References
(panta rhei [os potams]") translated literally as the whole ows [as a river], or guratively as
everything ows, nothing stands still. The concept of 6.1 Notes
becoming in philosophy is connected with two others:
[1] Seibt, Johanna. Process Philosophy. The Stanford Enmovement and evolution, as becoming assumes a changcyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2013 Edition). Retrieved
ing to and a moving toward. Becoming is the process
30 April 2014.
or state of being coming about in time and space.
[2] Diogenes Laertius,"Vitae Philosophorum, IX, 17

[3] With the highest respect, I except the name of Heraclitus

. When the rest of the philosophic folk rejected the testimony of the senses because they showed multiplicity and
change, he rejected their testimony because they showed
things as if they had permanence and unity. Heraclitus
too did the senses an injustice. But Heraclitus will remain
eternally right with his assertion that being is an empty
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ction.]"
view?docId=ft5x0nb3sz&chunk.id=d0e10785&toc.
depth=100&brand=eschol

Nietzsche on becoming

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that Heraclitus will remain eternally right with his assertion that
being is an empty ction.[3] Nietzsche developed the vision of a chaotic world in perpetual change and becoming.
The state of becoming does not produce xed entities,
such as being, subject, object, substance, thing. These false
concepts are the necessary mistakes which consciousness
and language employ in order to interpret the chaos of the
state of becoming. The mistake of Greek philosophers 6.2 Sources
was to falsify the testimony of the senses and negate the
evidence of the state of becoming. By postulating being Online
1

The materialistic becoming

The becoming of stars
Becoming in modern physics's
+Assessment&hl=it&um=1&ie=UTF-8&oi=scholart
Physical becoming
Post-classical Physical Ontology
Stellar Becoming in Small Scale
Physical evolution
Books and Articles
R.Arthur, Minkowski Spacetime and the Dimensions of the
Present in The Ontology of Spacetime, Vol. 1, Dieks, D.,
Amsterdam, Elsevier 2006.M.Born, Einsteins Theory of
Relativity, New York City,Dover Publications 1962.
A.Einstein, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, New York, Dover Publications 1952, pp. 35
65.P.Fitzgerald, Four Kinds of Temporal Becoming,Philosophical Topics 13 1985, pp. 145177.
A.Shimony, The Transient now (in Search for a Naturalistic World View), Cambridge,Cambridge University Press
1993, Vol. II.J.J.C.Smart, Philosophy and Scientic Realism, New York, The Humanities Press 1963.
G.Whitrow, The Natural Philosophy of Time, Oxford,
Oxford University Press 1980.
A. Mitov - S. Moch - A. Vogt, Next-to-next-toleading order evolution, Phys. Lett. B 638 (2006)
61 [hep-ph/0604053] [SPIRES]

REFERENCES

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