Gibralter,
An essence is in stone so to speak, but I for one know that it can be tempered, just don’t ask how.
Then it doesn’t exist.
Existence has always existed.
[The] existence [of a thing] precedes [its] essence.
For instance, take yourself, which has surely not always existed.
Which I think it does. I think a thing has to be presented to us first before we can project an essence onto it. We first get to know a person–get a taste for their attitude–and that for us defines who they are. This can be applied to one’s self as well–we watch ourselves as we express or practice a certain attitude and this gets incorporated into our self-image.
Essence is not surface personality traits, its your will exemplified through time, through eternity.
I’ll have to give that some thought, brown eyes. I’m not so sure that they do though but I may be wrong.
Our attitudes do define our perceptions and beliefs.
But I think that essence goes deeper. It’s who we are at our spiritual (not religious) core.
Will, for me, has to do with ego traits.
I’m not sure that our essence wills anything - it just IS in a sense.
Arc wrote
Your “will” or essence can have many characteristics, sides to it. It is the combination of those in effort that solidify in stone or you were made to be that way by your big sky daddy. Either way, in stone.
What is the constant here that we’re calling “essence”? Will? But the will changes over time–it becomes stronger/weaker, it wills different things. If it’s the everlasting presence of a will, then there is nothing in one will to distinguish it from another.
I’m more partial to the “bundle” theory of the self–the theory that says we are, at any given moment, just the hodgepodge of mental content and persuasions and dispositions that make up our minds. There is no constant that underlies the flux.
There are things that repeat, however, things like tastes, preferences, memories, beliefs, values, hearing our name, seeing the same person every time we look in the mirror, and these in the abstract might be considered together to be our “essence”.
You will different things or your will is distracted by different things?
…Not even physics?
Whatever essence you possess only exists while you are alive like consciousness
Your memory may survive in others but your essence cannot so is gone for ever
Even physics is fundamentally change… and it would be hard to pin down your unique “essence” by looking at the physics of your body.
Interestingly though, the physical body is in large part where we get the idea that we have an essence. “Essences” are really just identities. We project them onto objects. This has the essence of a rock whereas that has the essence of a tree, and that over there has the essence of my tree, the one I used to climb as a child. Identities. We do the same with people–that is John, that is Sarah, that is Steve–we identify the bodies, and like with all other objects, we think of them as “constants”. This is no less true for our own bodies when we look at ourselves in the mirror. Our essences acquire the uniqueness of our character by associations with all the peripheral aspects of ourselves–Steve works at a power plant, he’s a rather rude person, he dresses well, etc. ← All this goes towards who Steve is and colors his essence in a unique hue.
Gibbuns
Your will is an energy flow. It goes where your mind tells it. Your mind either gets distracted or stays on course.
Hows about your mind goes where your will tells it to but those blasted minds do get distracted while your will remains the same constant.
Ok, but then how can your will be unique? What makes my essence quintessentially “gib” and your essence quitessentially “Mongoose”?
No two have exactly the same personality so that is your essence