But the il y a gives the lie to the question: Why is there Being instead of simply nothing?
Levinas's question was not: "Why is there Being instead of simply nothing?" His concern was to approach Being differently, through the (human) being for which the primary experiences of Being are of its embodied, but not physiological, existence.
The first hour finalized nothing, however, and was instead a free-ranging discussion, with stretches of soliloquy, that circumscribed a point Drexler wanted to make about the perception of J. Crew, in the room and in the marketplace.
Instead, nothing is too small for these obsessives to obsess about.
Instead nothing has been done in the last five months, and there are no plans for the next four.
The ranking chaplain here responded to some of these instances of clear prejudice with the useless statement that he will "do what [he] can in good conscience" (which was nothing) instead of fulfilling his legal obligations.
His benefits should have been adjusted because of his part-time work, but instead nothing came.
Instead, nothing happened.
Instead, nothing came of it.
Instead, the church is undergoing nothing less than an epochal shift: It pits those who hold fast to a more traditional idea of protecting bishops and priests above all against those who call for more openness and accountability.
