Existence Is Not “Being There,” but “Being Determined”
We usually think of existence like this:
if something “is there,” it exists —
if it is not, it does not.
But for Whitehead, existence is not simply a matter of “being there.”
For him, to exist means
to be a result that has been determined into a particular way of becoming in this world.
What has not yet been determined into a specific form
does not yet belong to existence —
it remains in the field of potentiality.
What Is Not Yet Determined Is “Potentiality”
Whitehead divides the world into two layers:
- the domain of unrealized possibilities
- the domain of events that have already been determined into actuality
What has not yet been determined into “what it will be”
does not yet exist —
it resides in the library of potentiality.
Everything we call a “thing”
is a chain of events that have already been determined into actuality.
Every Existent Is a “Determined Event”
Atoms, stones, trees, people, societies, institutions, language, rules —
all of these are results of sequences of determined events that have solidified.
The world is not divided into “exists / does not exist.”
It is divided into
what has been determined and what has not yet been determined.
Determination Is Not Choice — It Is the Process of Becoming
In Whitehead’s philosophy, determination
is not an expression of conscious choice or free will.
It is the way an event becomes itself.
Every event:
- receives the prior world
- reorganizes it in its own way
- and becomes itself as a result
This entire process is what Whitehead calls determination.
Existence does not come first and determination later.
To be determined is to exist.
Where Is Freedom?
In this world, freedom does not mean
“being able to choose whatever one wants.”
Freedom is
the margin of how one becomes oneself.
Stones, atoms, trees, and humans
all possess, in their own ways,
a freedom of becoming themselves.
Humans simply have the highest density of that freedom.
Therefore, Existence Is Always Ongoing
What has not yet been determined does not yet exist.
Every existent is still being determined, even now.
We do not exist as “already completed things.”
We exist as beings that are continually becoming determined.
In Whitehead’s world,
existence is closer to a verb than a noun.
And even now,
quietly,
we are still becoming ourselves.
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