What is the difference between "doing" and "being"?
When I'm "existing", am I "doing" an action or "being" and object or substance? Is exerting an influence on the universe both being and doing?
Is "doing" only qualitatively different to "being" when "being" is implicit in the meaning of the "doing" word. For example "I am walking" (doing). The implicit information from walking being that I must be some animate lifeform (being) with the capacity to walk (do).
In this case would "doing" be a subsidiary class of being - like a temporary state second to the initial/fundamental state of simply existing (being).
As in I exist (object). Now how do I exist? Well I do this, do that and do those (qualities, behaviours, appearance, actions - all things that further define the type of being).
Is "doing" only qualitatively different to "being" when "being" is implicit in the meaning of the "doing" word. For example "I am walking" (doing). The implicit information from walking being that I must be some animate lifeform (being) with the capacity to walk (do).
In this case would "doing" be a subsidiary class of being - like a temporary state second to the initial/fundamental state of simply existing (being).
As in I exist (object). Now how do I exist? Well I do this, do that and do those (qualities, behaviours, appearance, actions - all things that further define the type of being).
Comments (3)
TO BE is an immensely complicated verb compared to TO DO. Doing things is delimited; being is unbounded.
A book could be written on being.
Doing is doing something; being is doing nothing.