Being and Time to identify the criteria or conditions by which any specific entity can show up at all (see world disclosure). If we grasp Being, we will clarify the meaning of being, or "sense" of being ("Sinn des Seins"), where by "sense" Heidegger means that "in terms of which something becomes intelligible as something." Presented in relation to the quality of knowledge, according to Heidegger, this sense of being precedes any notions of how or in what manner any particular being or beings exist, and is thus pre-scientific. Thus, in Heidegger's view, the question of the meaning of being would be an
Philosophy and literature narrative "Philosophus Autodidactus" as a response to al-Ghazali's "The Incoherence of the Philosophers", and then the 13th century Islamic theologian-philosopher Ibn al-Nafis also wrote a fictional narrative "Theologus Autodidactus" as a response to Abubacer's "Philosophus Autodidactus". The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche often articulated his ideas in literary modes, most notably in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", a re-imagined account of the teachings of Zoroaster. Marquis de Sade and Ayn Rand wrote novels in which characters served as mouthpieces for philosophical positions, and act in accordance with them in the plot. George Santayana was also a philosopher who wrote novels and poetry; the