Nothingness as Ground and Nothing but Ground

Transcendental materialism, essentially starting from Schelling’s philosophy, is one which deals with the re-actualization of a project that has its origin within the Tübingen axiomatic (basically developed at the time in the vicinity of Hölderlin, Schelling, Hegel). This early project aims at the construction of a system of worldly concepts, as does transcendental materialism. Starting with the thinking of this influential German philosopher, the objective of Rainer E. Zimmermann’s novel approach is to interpret all of this with a view to the totality of what can be cognitively observed, thus establishing the complete system of the world (in the sense of Hans Heinz Holz: the Gesamtzusammenhang) within a unified theory of the possible structures of knowledge. This totality is associated with a dialectic form which determines its processuality. On his way to an encompassing theory of the world as a procedural structure Rainer E. Zimmermann surveys a wide range of distinguished authors who dealt with similar questions, beginning with Spinoza up to the very present. He brings together famous accounts and opinions both from the philosophical and the scientific field of research in order to create a coherent, scientifically based conclusion on how to settle many of the questions raised hereby.