Existential ontology

Towards a first philosophy of modes of existence

Abstract

The concept of "mode of existence" has recently experienced a great diffusion in both continental and analytic philosophy. However, philosophers do not pay much attention to the concept of mode of existence itself. This paper proposes to establish a branch of ontology entirely devoted to clarifying the use of such a concept. We will begin by showing how Husserl's framework for addressing the heterogeneity of being, based on the distinction between material and formal ontology, participates in two ideas that have defined the tradition of the univocity of being in Western philosophy: the decision in favor of identity in the "ontological tension" between conceiving of being in terms of identity or in terms of difference, left as a legacy of Aristotle's Metaphysics; and the correlative processes of the "logicization of being" and the "essentialization of existence", that allowed Duns Scotus to proclaim that the concept of being is univocal. Then, we follow Roman Ingarden in claiming that "existential ontology" should be added to Husserl's bifurcation of formal and material: existential ontology is a formal inquiry into the very meaning of there being modes of existence, which, unlike Husserl's formal ontology, does not subject all existence to the mode of logic. The main features of existential ontology are outlined, and some of the questions it must face are mentioned. Finally, an example of how it should work is given by addressing the question of the "existential difference" between being and existence. The idea of existential ontology that should emerge is that of a discipline that provides a "diplomatic" framework in which different understandings of modes of existence can be confronted and debated.