Becoming — a philosophical concept
Compared to being & having
Three philosophically charged words are being, becoming and having. Being and becoming can be considered as the two major lines of flow in philosophy. I will just start with being and having (a famous work of Gabriel Marcel is titled so), before getting into the main topic of becoming.
Since it is not the main topic, one example will suffice. “I am an awesome person; a child of God; an atheist; a disloyal citizen of the country.” These are statements in the ‘being’ level; they are more connected to the true nature of the person. “I have money; I don’t have good education; I have power; I have a fair skin.” They are more in the ‘having’ nature. Are they required in life? Some of them are important —food, shelter, studies, money etc. How much I need is quite flexible. Fair or dark skin is a certain aspect of life. Though it matters in our society (thanks to racism, casteism and many skin care products), it is an aspect of having.
We move away from ‘being’ dimension and give greater importance to ‘having’ dimension. Sometimes, some of the aspects in the ‘having’ dimension enters the ‘being’ dimension. For eg. “I am rich; I am powerful.” These statements are more like ‘being’ statements. Or richness, powerfulness, fairness etc which were supposed to be ‘having’ statements became statements of ‘being’. And this can be the tragedy of life.
The second great debate is between being and becoming. Many great philosophers have emphasized on the ‘being’ dimension and haven’t given sufficient attention to ‘becoming’. Various religious thinking (especially Christian thinkers) have influenced this. God is. (This is more a being statement. God is unchangeable). So being has to be emphasized/prioritized instead of becoming. Now I don’t want to get into that debate on whether being should be prioritized or not; but importance should be given to ‘becoming’. To what extent, is for you to see.
Now, becoming is a reality of any living creature. Any living being is considered same between today and tomorrow. But a lot of changes happen in between two days. Some of our cells die and regenerate. Some of the mental conditionings etc change. So change and becoming is part of life. How significant are these? Some will say, they are just surface level realities, and we continue to focus on ‘being’ alone. Some philosophers will say ‘being is becoming’.
As it is Christmas season, you can reflect on the line below… Just a caution, don’t be quick to give the so-called classical right answer (I don’t deny it) — to save us.
