⁉️If essences are merely conceptual and apply to beings while the Originator lacks them, does the doctrine of the unity of being still stand?
Answer:
If we regard essences as conceptual, are we saying that essences are nothing? If they are nothing, then essences do not exist either! Does reason make things up and imagine them? What is reason: being or essence? Is it the aspect of reason that is being that confers conceptual status, or is it essence? Or is reason itself something conceptual? If so, can something conceptual confer conceptual status?
To give identity to nothingness is to deprive being of its identity!
When conceptual activity falls silent and reason ceases to function, does essence disintegrate?
Is conferring conceptual status part of the essence of being, which appears in different guises and in different forms?
Do we assign different individuations to a single being? Who is it that individuates? Something other than being? So does what does not exist confer individuation and conceptual status?
If essences are merely conceptual and apply to beings while the Originator lacks them, does the doctrine of the unity of being still stand?
The essence and first answer at a glance (60-word summary)
Treating essences as conceptual raises the question of whether reason, itself a conceptual construct, can confer conceptual status. To give identity to nothingness is to deprive being of its identity—and this does not undermine the unity of being.
Answer by Master Ali Saei (Abdullah Meshkat)
Teacher and researcher in the intellectual tradition of wisdom and the Ahl al-Bayt | Soroush Bamdadān Cultural Center⁉️Essence is held to be a conceptual construct that applies to beings, while the Originator is free of it. So the doctrine of the unity of being remains intact.
Answer:
If essence is deemed conceptual, does that mean it is imagined as nonexistent? If it is nonexistent, then essence does not exist either! Does the intellect form concepts and entertain illusions? What is the intellect: being or essence? Is it the aspect of being that forms concepts, or is it essence? Or is the intellect itself merely a conceptual construct? Can something conceptual, then, form concepts?
To give identity to nonbeing is to deprive being of it!
When conceptual thought falls silent and the intellect ceases to function, does essence fall apart?
Is conceptualization part of the being of essence, appearing in different guises and in different measure?
Do we assign distinct identities to a single being? Who assigns them—something other than being? So does what does not exist confer identity and form concepts?