ABSTRACT
At the beginning of Sein und Zeit, Martin Heidegger famously asked the question of being: "what is it to be". Heidegger refers to an object, a being. If "is" referred to a being then the italicized phrase would simply be a list of two objects: Heidegger and being. Heidegger was well aware of the problem, and he wrestled with various ways to avoid it. Thus, he tried the technique of writing under erasure. Heidegger was right in his conclusion that one cannot say anything about the being of an object, and in case one thinks this is some peculiarity of Heideggerian philosophy, it is worth noting that the very same situation occurs in some paradoxes of self-reference. Heidegger was right in insisting that the being of a being is not itself an object/being, and in concluding that one could therefore say nothing about it. The answer to the question of being requires us to talk of the ineffable.
