Sign-In
Cart
Before Being: A Metaphysical Inquiry into Nothingness, Becoming, and the Mystery of Being Human
Paperback
PhilosophyReligion General Astronomy & Space
Publisher Price: $18.95
Publisher: Vibrant Ages Publishing
Published: Sep 11 2025
Pages: 164
Weight: 0.50
Height: 0.38 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Why is there something rather than nothing? This question-older than science, deeper than theology-has haunted human thought for centuries. Most traditions set it aside, reframing or ignoring it as too strange to be held for long. Before Being refuses that evasion.
Beginning from the stark premise of absolute nothingness-the absence of space, time, law, or potential-the book considers two radically different paths by which being might arise. The first asks whether existence could emerge on its own, without cause or design, as the collapse of absence into presence. The second asks whether being was given-willed by an intention beyond the very structures it made possible.
From these two starting points, the inquiry expands into the great domains of metaphysics, science, and human meaning. Can order arise without prior law? Can mathematics or logic emerge without foundations? Could consciousness appear from structure alone, or is it irreducible? If being was chosen, why is the source hidden? What does such hiddenness mean for freedom, suffering, and the possibility of love?
Moving between philosophy, cosmology, and theology, the book traces a disciplined meditation on existence itself. It explores theories of emergence, the instability of nothingness, the possibility of metaphysical intention, and the human condition shaped by time, mortality, and memory. The inquiry does not claim resolution. Instead, it asks what it means to live in a world that does not declare its origin, where meaning must be discovered, constructed, or chosen.
Written for intelligent general readers, Before Being bridges metaphysical rigor with human reflection. It offers no easy answers, but instead an invitation: to face the mystery of existence without retreat, and to consider what it might mean to live in the light of a world that explains neither itself nor us, yet asks for our attention, response, and care.
1 different editions
Also available
Also from
Howard
Also in
Philosophy
Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea
Taylor, Astra
Hunt-Hendrix, Leah
Hardcover
In the Beginning Was the Deed: Realism and Moralism in Political Argument
Williams, Bernard
Paperback
The American Indian Mind in a Linear World: American Indian Studies and Traditional Knowledge
Fixico, Donald Lee
Paperback
Dreaming of Cinema: Spectatorship, Surrealism, and the Age of Digital Media
Lowenstein, Adam
Paperback
Machine Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Spiritual Freedom and the Re-Animation of Matter
Lafitte, Luke
Paperback
The Sociogony: Social Facts and the Ontology of Objects, Things, and Monsters
Worrell, Mark P.
Paperback
On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
Pirsig, Robert M.
Pirsig, Wendy K.
Hardcover
The Electromagnetic Brain: Em Field Theories on the Nature of Consciousness
Joye, Shelli Renée
Paperback
Philosophy in Turbulent Times: Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida
Roudinesco, Elisabeth
Paperback
The New Science of Giambattista Vico: Unabridged Translation of the Third Edition (1744) with the Addition of Practic of the New Science
Vico, Giambattista
Paperback
The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy
Giridharadas, Anand
Hardcover
The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance
Gottlieb, Anthony
Paperback
The Modes of Scepticism: Ancient Texts and Modern Interpretations
Annas, Julia
Barnes, Jonathan
Julia, Annas
Paperback
Friendship and Society: An Introduction to Augustine's Practical Philosophy
Burt, Donald X.
Paperback
Suffering and the Search for Meaning: Contemporary Responses to the Problem of Pain
Rice, Richard
Paperback
Essays V2: Moral And Entertaining On The Various Faculties And Passions Of The Human Mind (1815)
Clarendon, Edward Hyde Earl of
Paperback
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Holiday, Ryan
Hanselman, Stephen
Hardcover
The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us
Goldstein, Rebecca Newberger
Hardcover
The Obstacle Is the Way Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph
Holiday, Ryan
Hardcover
Self-Help from the Middle Ages: What the Seven Deadly Sins Can Teach Us about Living
Jones, Peter
Hardcover
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Paperback
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Fifth Anniversary Limited Edition: The Global Bestseller
Mackesy, Charlie
Hardcover
Bless & Release: The physics of letting go-and wanting what's meant for you.
Laporte, Danielle
Paperback
The Ethical Slut, Third Edition: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love
Easton, Dossie
Hardy, Janet W.
Paperback
Eight Million Ways to Happiness: Wisdom for Inspiration and Healing from the Heart of Japan
Yoda, Hiroko
Hardcover
Self-Reliance and Nature: The Complete First and Second Series of Emerson's Essays
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Hardcover