Sign and essence

Philosophy

Abstract

Subject of the research — a symbolic expression of entity in consciousness in the form of an essence, and also the process of the development of the concept. Knowing of the essence of things goes through three stages: 1) essence exists as a physical something; 2) as an unconscious (but already existent) essence — «suschest»; 3) as a conscious essence-concept. The article analyzes the relation between concepts of essence, sign, entity, significancy, and suggests praxeological model of their union. The author substantiates the assertionthat «suschest» (τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι) is an immediate and initially unconscious thinking of the existing-in-itself things, immediate existence before any knowing, so serving as the basis for such knowing. In addition, we distinguish «suschest» and the thing’s «essence of being» in this way: «essence of being» is the definition of «suschest» — defining the unconscious being of a thing through genus and species difference. On the basis of the analysis, the authors argue that unconscious existential needs break out into actual being, creating a symbolic value image of being, referring to the entity as to the instrument of realizing the need. Interpretation of signs forms the texture of cognition, that is, the established ways of connection and the use of essences