Bahá'í Ontology, Part One:

Abstract: Like the sacred scripture of all religions, the Bahá'í Writings embody an ontology, that is, they contain teachings about the nature of what exists and the structure of reality. This paper is an initial survey and explication of the ontology implicit in the Writings. It pays special attention to the nature of human existence, that is, to nature of specifically human be-ing. In pursuing these goals, this paper will make a number of observations about the Bahá'í Writings and the philosophy of Nietzsche and some of his modern successors.

Contents (pdf below)

Introduction 1. What is Ontology? 2. Do the Bahá’í Writings Have an Ontology? 3. The Language of Bahá’í Ontology 3.1. Making the Tradition and Language New 4. The Bedrock Principle of Bahá’í Ontology: Ontological Dualism of Creator and Created 4.1. Apparently Monist Passages 4.2. The Failure to Reconcile Monism and Dualism 5. Problems with Relativism 6. The First Great Ontological Question: Introduction 6.1. ‘To Be’ Means ‘to be Caused’ (with one Exception) 7. Why is There Something Rather than Nothing? The First Answer 7.1. God’s Free Will and Necessary Creation 8. Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing? The Second Answer 9. The Ontological Principle of Perfection and Plenitude 10. The Qualified Idealist Tendency in Bahá’í Ontology 10.1. The (Platonic) Arc of Descent and the (Aristotelian) Arc of Ascent 11. The Two-Fold Structure of Being 12. A Hierarchical Ontology: Degrees of Existence 13. A Qualified Relativist Ontology 14. Substantialist Ontology 15. A Qualified Realist Ontology 16. An Essentialist Ontology: To Be Means To Have an Essence 16.1. Being and Essence 16.2. Knowledge and Essence 17. Disconnected, Phenomenal ‘Knowledge’ 18. The Problem of Nominalism 19. God and the Problem of ‘Disconnected Knowledge’ 19.1. The Problem of Ethical Nihilism and the Deus Absconditus 19.2. An Alternative View 20. What Else Does It Mean ‘To Be’? 22. A Non-Kantian, Realist Ontology Vis-à-vis the Categories 23. The Rejection of Classical Empiricism and Positivism 24. The Equivocal Application of ‘Being’ 25. The Tension of Being and Nothingness 26. Non-Being and Being-not-Yet 27. Platonic and Aristotelian Elements in Bahá’í Ontology 28. Implications for Existential Ontology 29. An Ontological Fall? 30. To Be and Becoming 31. The Correlation of Being and Becoming 31.1. What is “Becoming’? 32. Conclusion

Download: lights6_kluge.pdf.