Consciousness and the Mystery of Being

Abstract

The word ‘being’ is one of the most unobtrusive in the English language. Since it is mostly used as a part of the verb ‘to be’, or (as in ‘human being’) a virtually redundant extra, it becomes almost invisible on the page - so much so that when it is used as a free-standing word in its own right it becomes advisable to capitalize its first letter and speak of it as ‘Being’; otherwise, if set at the side of a word such as ‘consciousness’, it may virtually vanish. One of the purposes of this study is to argue, by contrast, that its significance for certain writers has been so considerable that it should not be allowed to escape notice through simple oversight.