Concepts & Ascents

One of the most succinct arguments that demonstrates the hierarchical structure of reality takes its starting point from the fact that anything that exists is a unity.

For a thing to exist, it must be one. Try to conceive of something that is not a unity – it’s impossible. A pile of sand, though composed of countless grains, is still one thing in being a pile. A car is assembled from many parts, yet it is one car. Whether simple or complex, every existing thing must be gathered under some unifying principle in order to exist.

The implication is that unity is a necessary condition for existence, and in this way, it is prior to it. Multiplicity can only exist if it is unified in some way. Whatever it is that makes a multiplicity into a unity, we can call a principle of unity.

This principle is not found in a thing’s accidental features – such as its color, size, or weight – for these can change without destroying the thing’s identity. A couch remains a couch whether it is red or blue, tall or short. Rather, what makes something this particular thing is its essence – its couchness. Various traditions have referred to this intelligible aspect as essence, form, idea, or nature. Regardless of the name, what matters is that this essence is what makes a thing one, and as such, it must be ontologically prior to the thing’s existence.

A basic picture can be drawn: existence presupposes unity, and unity is imparted by essence. Thus, the intelligible is prior to the sensible. Reality, then, is structured hierarchically.

But someone might ask: if everything that exists requires a principle of unity, then what about God? Wouldn’t that imply that God too is dependent on some principle that unifies Him?

Here we must clarify that unity and multiplicity do not stand in a symmetrical relation. While all multiplicity must be gathered into unity to exist, unity does not require multiplicity. Unity is more fundamental. At the summit of this hierarchy of being, there must therefore be a being that is purely One – not unified by something else, but Unity itself. This One is not composed of parts. It is:

• One, without opposite
• Self-sufficient, needing nothing outside itself
• Simple, without composition

This is God – not one who possesses unity as a quality, but one who is Unity itself. God’s existence is not dependent on an essence distinct from Him. Rather, His essence is His existence. He is the ultimate ground of unity and being.

Now consider that essences are intelligible realities. To be intelligible is to be knowable – and anything knowable must exist within a consciousness or intellect. This means that the very reality of essences presupposes that they are known. Since essences apply to all determinate beings, the knowledge that contains all essences must be total and universal. There must be an intellect that contains the knowledge of all possibilities. That intellect must belong to the highest principle – to the One at the top of the hierarchy – namely, God.

In sum, the argument shows not only that reality is hierarchical, but that its structure ultimately leads to a necessary, self-sufficient, and knowing Unity – the One in whom all things find their origin, possibility, and intelligibility.

“Say, He is God, the One and Only. God, the Self-Sufficient. He neither begets nor is He begotten, and there is none comparable to Him.” Quran, Chapter 112