Being and Nothing: The Primordial Question of Philosophy

In this masterful work, leading German philosopher Lorenz B.Puntel answers the primordial question of philosophy: "Why is there Being at all and not absolutely nothing?" Considering the history of philosophy from Parmenides through to Heidegger and beyond, Puntel charges philosophy with persistently failing to adequately confront the question of Being.In response, Puntel sets out a systematic philosophy to rival Hegel's Science of Logic and Whitehead's Process and Reality. In two parts, the book first surveys the history of Western philosophy through the theoretical framework of Structural-Systematic Philosophy (SSP), which unites continental philosophy's comprehensiveness with the precision and linguistic rigor of the analytic tradition.Analysing all of the major stages in the “forgetfulness of Being” in Western philosophy, Puntel establishes a dialogue with a vast number of thinkers and movements in the history of philosophy, including Plato, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Francisco Suarez, C