Pelley, Mark: Existence and Constituency Are One Act: Against the Priority of Existence

Most metaphysicians take it for granted that existence comes first and constitutive character comes later. Something must exist before it can be anything. This paper argues that this assumption is not only false but structurally impossible. Three independent lines of argument—one from the ur‑fact that all being is determinate, one from the structure of creaturely gift, and one from the constitutive triadicity of the ground—converge on the same result: existence and constituency are one act. Ther