Reading: Introduction to Ontology

A philosophy of Being or Ontology

This week we are going to ponder the philosophical issue of, “What does it mean to exist?”   What makes a thing a thing? In the beginning, the bible tells us that God brought all the animals to Adam to “see what he would name them.”  Have you ever stopped to ponder what it means to have Genesis 2 in the Bible? Read this passage again and ask yourself what that means to us.

¹⁸ And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

¹⁹ And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

²⁰ And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

Mankind sees a thing, and it is in our very nature as the image of God to want to give it a name. It was not that God had made the lion and thought himself, “This is a fine lion.” No, according to God’s Word, God made a great animal and brought it to Adam to see what he would name it. And that name was great as far as God was concerned.

So throughout human history, mankind has been a race of name givers. In the English language we call these names of things “nouns.” The definition I learned as a young boy in school still remains as a solid definition of noun. “It is a word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things.” The issue before us this week then, is, what constitutes a thing which needs a name? What does it require for a thing to be a thing?  That study is called ontology.

Welcome to week 4!!

Click on the link to watch a video which introduces us to the field of ontology.

a short video introducing the concept of ontology or the study of being