A Reinterpretation of Being in Hegel's Science of Logic

Hegel begins his Science of Logic (1812-1816) by proclaiming that “Being indeterminate immediacy, is Nothing” and yet, that “Nothing is (or does exist)”. From which he immediately concludes: “Pure Being and pure Nothing are, then, the Same” (Sc. Log., pp. 94-95). As William Wallace remarks, in his article on Hegel in the Encyclopedia Britannica, the proposition that being and not being are thus declared to be identical proved to be “to most people a stumbling-block at the very door of “the” [Hegelian] system”. It has been traditional to interpret Hegel's meaning in these passages as suggesting the following: Being is a word; as a mere concept, devoid of determinacy and empty of meaning, it is just an empty word

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