nLab becoming

Idea

According to Science of Logic (SoL §152, Lawvere 91, p. 11) “becoming” is the unity of opposites of nothing and being. The reverse is ceasing. The Aufhebung of both is Dasein:

		Dasein
becoming :	nothing	$\;\;\;\dashv$	being	: ceasing

The universal factorization via $\emptyset$-unit and $\ast$-counit of a comonad:

$$\array{ \emptyset &\longrightarrow& X &\longrightarrow& \ast \\ \\ nothing && becoming && being }$$

of the unique function from the empty type to the unit type through any other type $X$.

Indeed, this is the statement of SoL §174: there is nothing which is not an intermediate state between being and nothing.

References

• Hegel, Science of Logic, Volume One: The Objective Logic, Book One: The Doctrine of Being, Chapter 1 Being, C Becoming

• Hermann Grassmann, Ausdehnungslehre, 1844

• William Lawvere, Some Thoughts on the Future of Category Theory1991