A groundbreaking classic of contemporary philosophy for the first time in English translation Between 1961 and 1970, Emanuele Severino was subjected to a thorough investigation by the Vatican Inquisition. The -fundamental incompatibility- identified between his thought and Christian doctrine ejected him from his position as Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University in Milan. The Essence of Nihilism , published in 1972, was the first book to follow his expulsion, and it established Severino's preeminent position within the the constellation of contemporary philosophy. In this groundbreaking and classic book--now for the first time available in English--Severino reinterprets the history of Western philosophy as the unfolding of -the greatest folly, - that is, of the belief that -things come out of nothing and fall back into nothing.- According to Severino, such a typically Western understanding of reality has resulted in a conviction that there is a radical -nothingness- to existence. In turn, this justifies the treatment of the world as an object of exploitation, degradation and destruction. To move beyond Western nihilism, suggests Severino, we must first of all -return to Parmenides.- Joining forces with the most venerable of Greek philosophers, Severino confutes nihilism's -path of night-, and develops a new philosophy grounded on the principle of the eternity of reality and of every single existent thing.