INTRODUCTION [2]
The Exposition of the Question of the Meaning of Being
CHAPTER ONE
The Necessity, Structure, and Priority
of the Question of Being
§ 1. The Necessity of an Explicit Repetition of the Question of Being
This question has today been forgotten—although our time considers itself progressive in again affirming "metaphysics." All the same we believe that we are spared the exertion of rekindling a γιγαντομαχία περὶ τῆς οὐσίας ["a Battle of Giants concerning Being," Plato, Sophist 245e6-246e1]. But the question touched upon here is hardly an arbitrary one. It sustained the avid research of Plato and Aristotle but from then on ceased to be heard as a thematic question of actual investigation. What these two thinkers achieved has been preserved in various distorted and "camouflaged" forms down to Hegel's Logic. And what then was wrested from phenomena by the highest exertion of thought, albeit in fragments and first beginnings, has long since been trivialized.
Not only that. On the basis of the Greek point of departure for the interpretation of being a dogma has taken shape which not only declares that the question of the meaning of being is superfluous, but even sanctions its neglect. It is said that "being" is the most universal and the emptiest concept. As such it resists every attempt at definition. Nor does this most universal and thus indefinable concept need any definition. Everybody uses it constantly and also already understands what is meant by it. Thus what troubled ancient philosophizing and kept it
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