[The problem of the self and the ontological question]

Acknowledging Aristotle's foundation of metaphysics as science of "Being qua Being", Nishitani probes the philosophical posture which underlies it and conditions it from inside. By tracking the genesis of the question of Being in the predecessors of Aristotle, Nishitani brings into question the very conception of philosophy as objectifying and analytical thought. Discussing the question of Being, he reevaluates the Aristotelian legacy of ousia, and more precisely the relationship between essence (Was-sein) and existence (Dass-sein) one the one hand and true-being (Wahr-sein) on the other in the perspective of the question of Being.