The Idea of Actualidad/Actuality in Zubiri and in the Dynamics of His Metaphysics

Abstract

In the year 2020, Pedro J. Chamizo Domínguez published two studies, one in English, the other in Spanish, focused on the problem of translating the English noun «actuality» to multiple European languages. He argued that, as a result of some semantic change in their evolution, two languages-- let us say English and Spanish-- share at least one of the meanings of their signifier, but they differ with respect to the other meanings. This difference in meaning (present in all Romance languages and German) make translation difficult. The present study offers a concrete, significant application of Chamizo´s thesis by following his example through an analysis of the English word «actuality». We examine the use of this word in the English version made by us of Xavier Zubiri's 1968 metaphysics course Estructura dinámica de la realidad [Dynamic Structure of Reality]. Here we show that Zubiri compels us to employ the word «actuality» to translate his Spanish word «actualidad» for reasons suggested by Chamizo. Yet in addition, such a translation obeys three concrete related purposes, which thanks to Chamizo makes Zubiri's metaphysics clearer : (1.) to distinguish «reality» from «being», a basic premise of Zubiri's 1968 treatise, On Essence, (2.) to define the concept of «structure», and (3.) to conceptualize time and its relationship to being, vis-à-vis Heidegger's Being and Time.