A Brief Introduction to Metaphysics & Ontology

Theology

July 2021

What is a horse? Envision for yourself a small child asking you this question.

Well, a horse is an animal people ride on. “Oh? So, an ostrich is a horse?” You correct yourself to be more specific: “No. A horse has four legs.”

“So, a camel is a horse?”

“No. Horses have manes.”

“So, a zebra is a horse?”

The simplest answer would be to point to a horse and name it a horse. We all understand a zebra has many horse-like qualities, but is not itself a horse. We intuitively know what is, and is not, a horse to a finely specific degree. A horse has four legs. Well, I could remove a leg and no one would have any issue naming a three-legged horse a horse. Further, without too much effort, we could see this severed leg, devoid of any horse, does, in fact, belong to a horse. Surely, we could remove all of its legs and expend no effort to name it a horse. Horses have ears. Well, we could do the same. Even without hooves, a distinctly horse-like quality, there should be no effort to name it a horse.

Clearly, then, a horse contains some essence of being a horse. It contains some inexplicable and unique quality of “horse-ness”. It has some quality of existence which is unique to a horse, thereby making it a horse. Again, it is the “horse-ness”. Essence is the base-level of existence. It is “being”, as in “to be”, as in simply existing. “Being” as it pertains only to a horse in this case. As stated, even when broken into constituent parts, we still know it as a horse. This is because its essence persists. It is the most fundamental and necessary point of existence per any thing. If broken down any further than essence, that thing which “is”, would cease to “be” that thing.

Likewise, as “essence” is the base-level of a thing to be what it is, “nature” is the base-level of a thing to act as it does. Essence is static, “being”. Nature is dynamic, “acting”. In this case, it is the “horse-ness” of the way a horse acts. Nature and essence are very closely related. Just as essence does not refer to the concrete existence of a horse, but fundamentally existing as a horse, nature does not refer to a horse’s “nature” to be aggressive or friendly, but to a horse’s nature to act fundamentally as a horse. It is from this definition of “nature” that we derive Natural Law, usually misconstrued as being the laws of nature.

BEING

More specifically, in the realm of “being”, a “substance” is something which exists in and of itself – not reliant on anything else for its existence. In this case, an individual horse is a substance which subsists of the aforementioned essence. We have breached the realm of “concrete existence”, henceforth referred to as “corporeality”. Essence/ousia is outside the realm of corporeality, which it enters corporeality via substance. An “accident” is a characteristic of a substance. Proper accidents are inherently characteristic of the substance, such as the ability to neigh, possessing four legs, or the fact a horse is brown or black. These are things proper to the individual substance. Non-proper accidents are things which may change, such as having a long mane but it could be trimmed short. Accidents inhere in substances, or individual horses. Accidents exist in or of a substance which exists/subsists of an essence.

Not all which exists is corporeal, though. Substance is not inherently material and can be divided into two categories: the corporeal and spiritual. All which exists, material and not, has essence; hence the etymology of the word “essence” goes back to the Latin “esse”, which simply means “to be”. That which has essence simply “is”. It is the what-ness of a thing, which can be ascertained by its shared qualities with others of its kind. Substance is the individual thing of whatever essence (ousia). An individual horse (a substance) (corporeal) has the ousia of a horse. A spirit of some kind (a substance) (immaterial) has whatever ousia of its kind. A substance, being the individual thing, serves as that which accidents can exist in or of, which cannot exist in themselves. Blackness (an accident), itself, does not exist, whereas whatever thing (substance) is black does, i.e.: a black horse.

In summation, an essence is the underlying, fundamental “what”, which then allows for individual substances to exist, necessarily individually subsisting in that essence. Then, in like manner, accidents exist in an underlying substance necessarily.

ACTION

More specifically, in the realm of action, there is energy (Greek: energeia, ενέργεια (s), energeies, ενέργειες (pl). You may have learned in school about the Modern scientific explanation of energy, which can exist in potential and kinetic states. Potential is as the spring which is compressed and ready to bounce but is unmoving. Once sprung and moving, the spring’s energy is kinetic. The metaphysical terminology is not terribly different.

Whereas in Modern science, “energy” is a broader term which encompasses both potential and kinetic energies, “energy” in metaphysics refers to kinetic. The word “kinetic” comes from Greek “kinesis” (κίνησις) which means “movement” or “motion”. Energy is also from Greek, energeia (ενέργεια), which also means “movement”, more-so as “action”. This, we will refer to as “act” or “actuality”. Metaphysics also recognizes potential energy, called “potency”.

Imagine a horse standing still. It has a “potential” to be walking, but is only standing. If it were walking, this would be actual, then having the potential to be standing still but not.

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I used to think Christianity was morally backward and limited. I now recognize that Christian positions on anything, both externally (morality) and interally (Triadology), can be explained with the above principles and more. It was diving into this that made me realize religion was not for children, but adults. The next essay in this series will apply these terms specifically to Christianity and the faults of the theology of some Christians.