Martin Heidegger was born to a Catholic family and destined for the church clergy. Religion, however, gave inadequate answers to his nagging questions. Frustrated, he turned to philosophy for help. Soon he completely devoted himself to philosophy and what was to become his lifelong concern: Being.
    For Heidegger, Being is different from beings. Beings are commonly designated as objects. They are. A chair, a human, an idea, an angel are all beings. Being, on the other hand, is the essence of beings. It is transcendent and all encompassing. It must come to be before beings can follow its lead. It is the direct opposite of the "nihilation of nothing" (Heidegger What is Metaphysics"). Yet nothing also belongs to Being, is a defining characteristic of Being, in that only against the backdrop of nothing can Being be revealed.
    To the...