The article discusses meta-ontology of a contemporary analytic philosopher P. van Inwagen and is searching for its roots in the analytic tradition. Inwagen’s theses about being and their signifi cance for determining how to conduct ontological disputes are being considered and analyzed. The line of thinking on the problem of existence from G. Frege to W. Quine, which led eventually to the formulation of Inwagen’s theses, is traced. Within the context of the works of Frege, Russell and Quine, Inwagen’s counterarguments against meinongians, neo-meinongians, and others are investigated. The author concludes that without the way undertaken in the preceding analytic tradition, Inwagen’s meta-ontology would be impossible.