Byt jako element natury w filozofii przedsokratejskiej
Being as an Element of Nature in Presocratic Philosophy

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to present an interpretation in the light of which one can read a characteristic aspect of the understanding of being in Presocratic philosophy. At the point of departure, Rafał Katamay emphasizes the idea of place within the etymology of the verb “to be”; generally, “to be” means “to be in the world”. Next, he characterizes the world as existing implicitly (i.e., independently of the human mind) and having “a different plan”, an order hidden behind phenomena. Attempts to understand this were called investigations into the nature (the nature of “things”), nature understood as the real foundation of the world and its active source, something that internally constitutes all objects of sensory perception and provides building materials, structures and laws of development. Against this background (which makes up the interpretive context), Katamay defines the understanding of a being as an element of nature in the sense of something identifiable in a distributive way, dependent, and always connected with self‑sustaining nature. This element can be understood in two ways: 1) as an object accessible to the senses grasped together with the nature constituting it, e.g., a concrete tree; 2) as the internal nature, e.g., fire (Heraclitus) or the four elements (Empedocles), which sensual objects originate from or by which they are constituted.

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