What separates existing passively from existing actively?

The level of responsibility that someone is capable of accepting as a condition for applying the act of existence. Those who merely exist passively become a result of a context; those who exist actively transform the context.

Which examples of the act of existence does the article give?

Hundreds of hectares that pass from nature to a state, from a state to a group of people and from that group to a single person. Demarcating, acquiring and negotiating the space are described as the act of existence by rulers, by citizens and by a single person.

Can the act of existence be calculated?

Not entirely. The article says that foreseeing, estimating or just imagining is far from the act of actually and willingly existing, and that to exist becomes a constant exercise of trial and error.

Concept

Act of Existence

Philosophy & Ethics

What is the act of existence in the Agency editorial?

The act of existence is the name the author of the Agency editorial gives, in his own philosophical draft, to existing as something one does and answers for, not something that merely happens. Writing.2 separates those who exist passively and become the result of a context from those who exist actively and transform the context.

In short

The expression appears in The Condition of Nature, the numbered aphoristic text that closes Writing.2. The author distinguishes coming into existence from actually performing the act of existence. The divider between the two is the level of responsibility someone is capable of accepting as a condition for applying it. He then reads the demarcation, acquisition and negotiation of land as acts of existence by rulers, by citizens and by a single person.

Key facts

What separates existing passively from existing actively?: The level of responsibility that someone is capable of accepting as a condition for applying the act of existence. Those who merely exist passively become a result of a context; those who exist actively transform the context.
Which examples of the act of existence does the article give?: Hundreds of hectares that pass from nature to a state, from a state to a group of people and from that group to a single person. Demarcating, acquiring and negotiating the space are described as the act of existence by rulers, by citizens and by a single person.
Can the act of existence be calculated?: Not entirely. The article says that foreseeing, estimating or just imagining is far from the act of actually and willingly existing, and that to exist becomes a constant exercise of trial and error.

What is the act of existence?

In philosophy, the vocabulary of act and existence has a long history: medieval thinkers spoke of the act of being, and existentialist writers of the twentieth century insisted that a person is defined by what they do with the fact of existing. The author of Writing.2 uses the expression in a sense of his own. For him, to exist involves occupying a space, and performing the act of existence means accepting responsibility for the transformations that this occupation causes.

How does the act of existence appear in the Agency editorial?

The expression belongs to the drafts of the author's first philosophy book, shared in Writing.2 as a practical example of aphoristic writing. Early in the text, he places colossal atoms of disparity between the details of coming into existence and the larger details of actually performing the act of existence.

A sequence of questions about territory follows, each ending with the act of existence by a different agent. The author concludes that a space previously unoccupied ended up occupied by someone who could not make full use of it alone, and that occupying a space implies taking responsibility for its true possession.

Source editions

Where this entry comes from in the Agency editorial.

Writing.2 - AphorismsSeptember 21, 2023Read the edition

Also from these editions: concepts

Also from these editions: terms

Related terms

comfort zonenoun: The set of situations and habits in which a person feels safe and in control, without risk or anxiety. Leaving it is commonly described as a condition for learning and growth.
Inertianoun: The tendency of an object to remain at rest or in uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force, or a state of sluggish inaction in organizations.
oscillationnoun: A regular movement back and forth between two points or states. Figuratively, the alternation between two opposite positions, attitudes or forces.
Paradoxnoun: A statement, situation, or person that appears contradictory or absurd yet may reveal a deeper underlying truth.