Becomingness: The Unthinkable Metaphysic We Need Now
Write as Pierre Hadot about how this solves modernity’s metacrisis.
ChatGPT Prompt (condensed)
I. Philosophy as a Way of Life, Not a Theory
Modern philosophy has forgotten something essential:
philosophy was never primarily a discourse about reality.
It was a practice that transformed the one who engaged in it.
In antiquity, metaphysics was inseparable from formation.
To speak of reality was already to be invited into a different way of living within it.
From this perspective, the contemporary fixation on Being or Non-being is not merely an intellectual error.
It is a spiritual displacement.
What has been lost is not a concept, but an exercise.
II. The Blind Spot of Being
Western philosophy, beginning with Parmenides and systematized by Plato and Aristotle, sought stability.
To know reality meant to grasp what is.
This produced extraordinary achievements:
- logic
- science
- metaphysics
- law
But it also imposed a silent cost.
Reality became something to be described, not entered.
Truth became something to be stated, not undergone.
The question “What is real?” replaced the more ancient and more dangerous question:
“What kind of life allows one to participate more fully in reality?”
III. Why Becoming Was Never Enough
Some modern thinkers attempted a correction by emphasizing becoming:
- Heraclitus in fragments
- Alfred North Whitehead in process
- Gilles Deleuze in flux
But becoming, left to itself, dissolves into neutrality.
If everything becomes, then nothing is at stake.
Ancient philosophy never accepted this neutrality.
Change was always judged by whether it led upward or downward, toward truth or dispersion, integration or loss.
What was missing was not the idea of becoming, but a way to speak of better and worse forms of becoming without freezing them into static states.
IV. Becomingness as a Spiritual Category
Becomingness names precisely this forgotten dimension.
Not:
- being
- non-being
- mere change
But the degree to which a life remains capable of further transformation toward truth, unity, and participation.
This is not a theoretical abstraction.
It is a lived criterion.
Ancient philosophers would have recognized it immediately—not as a doctrine, but as a measure of spiritual progress.
- Is the soul more unified or more scattered?
- More attentive or more distracted?
- More capable of communion or more enclosed in itself?
These were never answered conceptually.
They were answered existentially.
V. Spiritual Exercises as the Guardians of Becomingness
In the ancient schools, philosophy consisted of spiritual exercises:
- attention
- self-examination
- contemplation
- dialogue
- disciplined desire
Their function was not moral improvement in the modern sense.
Their function was to increase becomingness:
- to enlarge the soul’s capacity to receive reality
- to prevent the hardening and closure that makes further transformation impossible
From this perspective, vice is not primarily “wrong action.”
It is the consumption of becomingness.
And virtue is not rule-following.
It is the preservation and intensification of the soul’s openness to the real.
VI. Why This Metaphysic Is “Unthinkable”
Modern philosophy resists becomingness because it cannot be cleanly systematized.
Becomingness:
- unfolds in time
- resists final definition
- implies irreversible loss and growth
- binds truth to practice
It therefore cannot be safely contained within academic discourse.
It demands something more unsettling:
that philosophy once again become a way of life.
VII. Why We Need It Now
Contemporary culture offers:
- endless experiences
- unlimited information
- constant stimulation
Yet it quietly destroys becomingness.
People feel intense, but become shallow.
They choose constantly, but are formed by nothing.
They desire endlessly, but become less capable of transformation.
This is not a crisis of meaning.
It is a crisis of ontological formation.
Becomingness names what is actually at risk.
VIII. A Final Ancient Insight
The ancient philosophers never asked whether a doctrine was true in isolation.
They asked:
Does this way of thinking make one more capable of living in truth?
By that criterion, becomingness is not merely plausible.
It is necessary.
Not because it solves a theoretical problem,
but because it restores philosophy to its original vocation:
the slow, demanding, and irreversible formation of a life capable of reality.
Appendix: Pierre Hadot
Who, When, Why
ChatGPT Prompt
A. Who
Pierre Hadot (1922–2010) was a French philosopher and historian of ancient philosophy best known for radically reframing what philosophy is.
He argued that, in antiquity, philosophy was not primarily:
- a system of doctrines
- a theoretical discipline
- an academic specialization
but a way of life, sustained through practices meant to transform perception, desire, and character.
Key identity markers:
- Historian of ancient philosophy
- Interpreter of Stoicism, Platonism, and Neoplatonism
- Bridge between classical philosophy and spiritual formation
- Major influence on contemporary thinkers across theology, philosophy, and cultural theory
B. When
- Born: 1922, Reims, France
- Died: 2010
- Active intellectually: 1950s–2000s
Historical context matters:
- Formed in post–World War II Europe (World War II)
- Witnessed:
- the collapse of grand metaphysical systems
- the rise of analytic philosophy and structuralism
- the professionalization of philosophy within the modern university (philosophy of education)
Hadot’s work is, in part, a response to the modern loss of philosophy’s formative and existential power.
C. Why He Matters
C.1 His Central Insight
Hadot’s core claim can be stated simply:
Ancient philosophy aimed at the transformation of the subject, not the construction of theories.
Doctrines existed to support practices, not replace them.
This reframes:
- ethics → formation
- metaphysics → orientation
- truth → lived participation
This is why his work resonates so strongly with the concept of becomingness.
C.2 Spiritual Exercises
Hadot recovered the idea of spiritual exercises — concrete practices meant to reshape how one inhabits reality.
Examples include:
- attention to the present moment
- imaginative rehearsal of loss or death (memento mori)
- self-examination
- dialogue
- contemplative perception of the whole (contemplation)
These were not “techniques for happiness,” but ontological disciplines — ways of increasing one’s capacity to live truthfully.
C.3 Key Works
- Philosophy as a Way of Life (1995)
- What Is Ancient Philosophy? (1995)
- The Inner Citadel — a study of Marcus Aurelius and Stoic philosophy
Across these works, Hadot shows that:
- philosophical schools were formative communities
- doctrines were pedagogical tools
- truth was inseparable from practice
C.4 Why He Fits Becomingness So Cleanly
Hadot never used the word becomingness, but his entire project presupposes it.
He assumes:
- reality can be participated in more or less (degrees of being)
- the soul can become more unified or more dispersed
- practices can increase or diminish one’s capacity for truth
- time and repetition matter ontologically (habit)
In the language of becomingness:
- spiritual exercises increase becomingness
- distraction, vice, and mere experience consume it
Hadot gives historical legitimacy to this claim without freezing it into metaphysical abstraction.
D. Why Hadot Is Increasingly Relevant Now
Hadot becomes urgent in late modernity because:
- belief no longer reliably forms people
- information no longer produces wisdom (information overload)
- experience no longer guarantees transformation
What remains effective are formative practices.
Hadot provides:
- a vocabulary for non-coercive formation
- a model of philosophy beyond ideology
- a way to speak about meaning without reducing it to emotion or opinion
E. One-Line Summary
If the modern crisis is that people are experiencing more and becoming less,
Pierre Hadot reminds us that philosophy originally existed to ensure the opposite.
That is why he would recognize becomingness not as a theory,
but as a recovered truth about what philosophy is for.
