Being

Abstract

Being, as this chapter shows, is the most difficult existentialist concept to define, and it is on this topic that the existentialists are most diverse and often obscure. Being encompasses the dimensions of self, others, world, and earth considered in previous chapters, and yet according to existentialists evades objective thought. This chapter considers the problem of Being in light of Heidegger’s notions of being-in-the-world and the ontological difference, Marcel’s conception of the ontological mystery, Jaspers’s account of the encompassing. It considers Levinas’s turn against existentialism in rejection of its fascination with Being, while also pointing out the persistence of ontology in his own post-existential ethics.