of being cannot be opposed to not being in the sense of being something other than a being. It is extremely easy to fall into the trap of thinking of beings as existing in a sort of space of not-being, but this is an illusion. If we compare the statements ‘I can see trees’ and ‘I can see nothing,’ it is clear that while ‘trees’ serves to signify what can be seen, ‘nothing’ does not have this function. It functions rather in the manner of an adverb than as an object of the verb. Similarly, if we compare