Martin heidegger what is metaphysics

MARTIN HEIDEGGER

(1) WHAT IS METAPHYSICS? (1929)

(2) POSTSCRIPT TO "WHAT IS METAPHYSICS" (1949 [1943])

(3) INTRODUCTION TO "WHAT IS METAPHYSICS?:

GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF METAPHYSICS (1949)

TRANSLATED BY

MILES GROTH, PhD

TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Translations of Heidegger are usually not good English, but they can be. It is, of

course, impossible to reconfigure German as English since German formations

follow rules of sense and nonsense that are different from English formations. But

it is possible to bring Heidegger over into English.

Heidegger is colloquial, idiomatic and playful. His German is steeped in

literature, especially in the authors who transformed and enriched the German

language: Meister Eckhart, Luther, Goethe, Lessing, Herder, Schiller, Hölderlin.

Heidegger sometimes gives leeway to assonance for clues about words formed

on the same root. He builds with echoes and then plays on the linguistic

structures disclosed, which reveal the sense embedded in the words.

Reading Heidegger in German, we accompany his discoveries of sense in the

German language. His means of unfolding meaning in the German language

can often be applied to other languages, such as English, where the new

language can be freed for its own playfulness, poetry and idioms.

I have never felt that Heidegger was unclear or deliberately obscure. He wrote

a great deal and, I suspect, fluently. Then, returning to what he had written, a

week later or decades later, he discovered what he had been given by

language. He would then rewrite, emend, gloss, edit, qualify, expand what he

had written.

In this translation I do not hope to solve Heidegger's ambiguities or explain them

away. I only want to translate the ambiguities expressed in German into

ambiguities expressed in English.

The three texts translated below are separated from each other by fourteen

and six years, respectively. On July 24, 1929, Heidegger gave his inaugural

lecture "What Is Metaphysics?" to the combined faculties of the University of

Freiburg. He wrote a postscript to this "letter" to his colleagues for the fourth

edition of the publication of the lecture in 1943. For the fifth edition (1949) he

added an introduction to the lecture, entitled "Getting to the Bottom of

Metaphysics [Der Rückgang in den Grund der Metaphysik]."

Though published together in logical order (introduction, lecture, postscript),

Heidegger also presented them chronologically in his anthology Frontier Markers

[Wegmarken] beginning in 1967. The order of presentation there makes more

sense, since as the title of Heidegger's book indicates, each text marks having

reached a new frontier in his thinking. By contrast, his other anthology Dead

Ends [Holzwege] indicates experiments in thinking that were in a certain sense

blind alleys.

Heidegger describes the postscript as a preface or foreword. In that sense it

should come first, followed by the introduction, as is the custom in the format of

a book. Or perhaps the postscript should bring us back to the lecture itself. The

order of reading would then be introduction, lecture, postscript, and lecture

again.

For Heidegger, an introduction such as his "Introduction into Metaphysics" from

1935 or "Getting to the Bottom of Metaphysics" has pedagogical significance,

but like the introduction in a piece of classical music, it is designed to bring the

listener into the world of the main theme. It serves to set the mood for the piece.

I have translated the three frontier markers translated grouped around the

lecture "What Is Metaphysics?" in the order of composition. The postscript was

revised for the fifth edition (1949) of the lecture. In an earlier English translation,

published that year, the unrevised postscript was the basis for the translation.

The present translation is based on the Gesamtausgabe edition of Wegmarken

(Volume 9, 1976) and so includes marginal notes gleaned from Heidegger's

copies of the various editions of his lecture.

The order of composition of the three essays which follow was lecture (1929),

postscript (1943, rev. 1949), and introduction (1949). Nonetheless, I am

presenting them as Heidegger did beginning with the fourth edition (1943) of the

lecture. In Wegmarken, they are presented chronologically in order of

composition.1

All citations are to the Gesamtausgabe edition of Wegmarken (1976) (Frankfurt:

Klostermann): "Einleitung zu 'Was ist Metaphysik?'" [= EWM and page number],

pp. 365-383; "Was ist Metaphysik?" [= WM and page number], pp. 103-122]; and

"Nachwort zu 'Was ist Metaphysik?'" [=NWM and page number], pp. 303-312.

What Is Metaphysics? The lecture was presented to the faculties of the

University of Freiburg on July 24, 1929 as Heidegger's inaugural address. It was

first translated by R.F.C. Hull and Alan Crick in 1949 and published in Existence

and Being, a collection of Heidegger's essays edited by Werner Brock (Chicago:

Henry Regnery), pp. 325-349. The lecture and postscript (1943 version) have

been reprinted since 1975 in the revised and expanded edition of Walter

Kaufmann's Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre (New York: New American

Library), pp. 242-257. A second translation of only the lecture, by David Krell,

was published in Basic Writings (1977) New York: Harper and Row (expanded

edition, 1993), pp. 93-110.

1 In a note to the first publication in French of a translation of the Introduction ("La Remonté au

Fondement de la Métaphysique"), the translator, Joseph Rovan observes that the Introduction "est conçu

comme une préface à une postface [was conceived as a preface to a postscript]" to the lecture. Fontaine

(Paris) 10, #58, March 1947, p. 888.

Postscript to 'What Is Metaphysics?' The postscript was published with the fourth

edition (1943) of the lecture. In this version, it was included with the Hull/Crick

translation of the, ibid., pp.349-361, and in Kaufmann, ibid., pp. 257-264.

Heidegger revised the postscript for the fifth edition (1949). That version is

translated below.

Introduction to 'What Is Metaphysics?'. Getting to the Bottom of Metaphysics

The introduction was written in 1949 and published with the lecture and revised

postscript. It first appeared in a translation by Walter Kaufmann, in 1956, in

Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre (revised edition [1975], pp. 265-279).

INTRODUCTION TO "WHAT IS METAPHYSICS?"

GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF METAPHYSICS (1949)2

Descartes wrote to [Claude] Picot3, who translated the Principia Philosophiae

into French: "Ainsi toute la Philosophie est comme un arbre, dont les racines sont

2 Another possible version of the subtitle is "The Nothing at the Heart of

Metaphysics." The adjective 'rückgängig' can mean "null and void" [nichtig].

Thus the subtitle suggests that the ground of metaphysics is no-thing [das Nichts],

which is the message of the lecture. For this translation of 'das Nichts', see the

lecture. Notes preceded by (*) are Heidegger's marginalia gleaned from his

copies of the various editions of the lecture.

3 Heidegger's citation is to René Descartes, Oeuvres, edited by Charles Adam

and Paul Tannery (Paris: Vrin, 1971 [1897-1910]), Volume IX,2, p. 14. Descartes'

letter to Abbé Picot constitutes his introduction to the Principia in Picot's

translation. For information on Picot, see Descartes' Correspondance, Volume V

(1947) Paris: Presses Universaires de France, pp. 402-404. The current translation,

by John Cottingham, of the "Preface" is in John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff

and Dugald Murdoch (eds.), The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (1985)

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Volume I, p. 186.

la Métaphysique, le tronc est la Physique, et les branches qui sortent de ce tronc

toutes les autres sciences . . .."4

Staying with this image, we ask, in what soil [Boden]5 do the roots of the tree of

philosophy find their support? From what ground6 do the roots and the tree as a

4 "Thus the whole of philosophy is like a tree, whose roots are metaphysics,

the trunk of which is physics, and the branches which extend out from that trunk

are the rest of the sciences."

5 In this translation, frequent interpolation of the original German terms will be

made. Sometimes an entire sentence will be given in a footnote. Other times, a

variant rendering will be given, again in a footnote. This procedure is often

decried as interfering with the flow of the text. It is doubtful than anyone

reading the text will regret not having to turn back to the original German,

especially when its inclusion strengthens the attempt to understand Heidegger's

meaning. Besides, the study of Heidegger's texts requires and repays the labor

of long reflection on the play of language in them.

6 Heidegger will play on two senses of 'Grund': the soil in and out of which

living things grow and the basis or grounds or reasons for something, presented

as evidence for coming to a certain decision about it. I will translate 'Grund'

with "ground," "grounds," "basis" or even "at the heart of." "In den Grund" is

rendered "at bottom." The phrase "Grund und Boden" is translated as "earth" or

"land," the earth one farms or tends. "Grund und Boden" also functions

whole receive their vital nourishment and strength? What element, utterly

hidden, controls the supporting and nourishing roots of the tree? What lies

buried and is active in the essence [Wesen]7 of metaphysics? What does

metaphysics look like at bottom? What is metaphysics at bottom after all?

It thinks of be-ing [das Seiende]8 as be-ing. Wherever it is asked what be-ing is,

be-ing as such is in view. Metaphysical formulating [Vorstellen]9 owes this view

idiomatically to mean "utterly." "Im Grunde" becomes "at the heart of,"

"fundamentally," "really," or "at (the) bottom (of)."

7 Sometimes 'Wesen' is translated "nature."

8 By 'das Seiende' Heidegger has in mind effective actuality, real "goings on"

of any kind, in contrast with the "nothing going on" of no-thing [das Nichts].

9 An important theme of the Introduction is how asking a question [eine Frage

zu vorstellen] has become, in metaphysics, formulating, designating, proposing,

making suppositions and apodeictic assertions [Vorstellungen], professing,

representing (that is, or presenting something a second time and therefore in a

second version), assigning meanings -- rather than letting those meaning

emerge on their own. To formulate or designate as metaphysics does is to affirm

as incontrovertibly true, almost as a confession of faith. In professing,

metaphysics also invariably promotes what it proposes. It seeks to further itself

and what it puts forward. By contrast, teaching, like poetic speaking, is quite

to the light*10 of be[ing] [Sein].11 The light itself (what such thinking experiences

as light, that is) no longer comes into view in this thinking, because it presents

be-ing always and only with respect to be-ing. In view of this, metaphysical

thinking certainly asks about an actual [seienden] source and creator [Urheber]

of the light. From this alone it is evident enough that every perspective grants a

view [Durchsicht] of be-ing.

However be-ing may be explained, whether as spirit [Geist] in the sense of

spirituality [Spiritualismus], as becoming [Werden] and being alive [Leben], as

formulation [Vorstellung], as will [Wille], as substance [Substanz], as subject

different from professing. The phenomenological ideal, we recall, is knowledge

without belief.

10 Heidegger's marginal notes in his copies of the various editions of the

lecture are included in the Gesamtausgabe edition of Wegmarken. They will be

cited with edition number.

*Fifth edition (1949): "Lichtung [illuminating]." (EWM 365) The term "light" is

used in the phrase "in light of."

11 With this term, Heidegger announces the 'be-' ['das Sein'] in 'be-ing' ['das

Seiende'], that is, the 'Sei-' (root) of 'das Seiende'. I choose the form 'be[ing]' to

underscore how awkward this must come to sound. This linguistic contraption is

meant to give pause. I pronounce it 'be'. In a certain way, the bare infinitive

'be' has been the most questionable matter for Heidegger's thinking.

[Subjekt], as energeia, or as the eternal return of the equivalent [ewige

Wiederkehr des Gleichen]12, be-ing appears as be-ing each time in light of

be[ing]. Whenever metaphysics formulates be-ing, it has there shed light on

be[ing]. Be[ing] has arrived with[in] emergence [Unverborgenheit] (Z__:____).13

Whether and how be[ing] brings such emergence with it, whether and how it

brings itself along*14 into and as metaphysics in the first place remains obscure.

12 For this translation of 'die Gleiche', see my essay "Who Is Heidegger's

Nietzsche," a review article of the English translations of Heidegger's Nietzsche

(1960).

13 The sense is of something stepping out of the shadows or coming out of

seclusion and being turned over to someone after having been in hiding. As

Z__:____, emergence is determined as having been deprived or relieved of

forgetfulness (_:__) by be[ing]. Perhaps "emergedness" would work here.

14 *Fifth edition (1949): "An-bringen: Gewähren die Unverborgenheit und in

dieser Unverborgenes, Anwesendes. Im Anwesen verbirgt sich: An-bringen von

Unverborgenheit, die Anwesendes answesen läßt. 'das Sein selbst' ist das Sein in

seiner Wahrheit, welche Wahrheit zum Sein gehört, d.h. in welche Wahrheit 'Sein'

entschwindet [bringing along: affording / granting of emergence, and in this

emerging, apprésenting (making present to). In apprésenting is hidden the

bringing along of emergence, which apprésenting lets itself apprésent. 'Be[ing]

itself' is be[ing] in its truth, truth which belongs to be[ing], that is, truth in which

'be[ing]' vanishes]." (EWM 366)

Be[ing] is not thought in its disclosing nature [entbergenden Wesen], that is, in its

truth. Nevertheless, in its answer to the question about be-ing as such,

metaphysics speaks out of an unnoticed obviousness [Offenbarkeit] of be[ing].

We can therefore call the truth of be[ing] the ground in which metaphysics as

the root of the tree of philosophy is supported, by means of which it is nourished.

Because metaphysics questions be-ing as be-ing, it is left to be-ing and does not

turn to be[ing] as be[ing]. As the root of the tree, it sends nourishment and

strength out into its trunk and branches. A root branches out into the land

[Grund und Bogen] and so, for the good of the tree, goes out of it and thus can

take leave of it. The tree of philosophy grows out of the rootbed of metaphysics.

The earth in fact is the element in which the root of the tree comes to be

[west]15, but the growth of the tree is never able to absorb the rootbed so that it

disappears as something tree-like16 in the tree. Instead, the roots lose

themselves in a thickset knot of fibers in the soil. The ground is ground for the

root which for the good of the tree forgets itself in it. But the root still belongs to

the tree, even though in its own way it commits itself to the element of the soil. It

15 The verb 'wesen' will be translated as "to come to be" or "to come to pass."

What 'west' arrives precisely in order to pass on; it never "is" in the sense of the

verbs '_®___', 'esse', and '(to) be', all of which imply some kind of fixity or stasis.

'Wesen' also connotes "being brought to pass."

16 That is, as something philosophical . . .

uses up [verschwindet] its element and itself in this [element]. As a root, it does

not care about the soil, at least not in such wise that it would appear to be its

nature to grow solely in that element and spread out only through it.

Presumably, this element would not be the element it is were it not that the root

weaves its way through it.

Metaphysics, insofar as it always formulates be-ing as be-ing, does not think

about [denkt nicht an] be[ing] itself. Philosophy does not focus on its basis [auf

ihren Grund].*17 In fact, in metaphysics, it always abandons it. But nevertheless

it never escapes it. If thinking sets out to experience the basis of metaphysics, to

the extent that such thinking tries to think the truth of be[ing] itself instead of only

formulating be-ing as be-ing, it has in a certain way abandoned metaphysics.

Seen from the perspective of metaphysics, such thinking goes back to the basis

of metaphysics. But what thus still appears to be the basis, the essence of

metaphysics, presumably because it is experienced from out of itself as

something else and unspoken, is, accordingly, also something other than

metaphysics.

Thinking which thinks about the truth of be[ing] is not satisfied with metaphysics,

of course, but neither does it think against metaphysics. Figuratively speaking, it

17 *Fifth edition (1949): "Sein und Grund: das Selbe [Be[ing] and basis: the

same]." (EWM 367)

does not "uproot" the root of philosophy; it digs into its ground and ploughs its

land. Metaphysics continues to be first philosophy [das Erste der Philosophie].

First thinking [Das Erste des Denkens] is not attained.18 Metaphysics is gotten

over [überwunden] in thinking about the truth of be[ing]. The claim of

metaphysics to govern the relationship to "be[ing]" and definitively to determine

every relation to be-ing as such becomes invalid. But this "getting over

metaphysics" doesn't get rid of metaphysics. As long as man is the animal

rationale, he is the animal metaphysicum. As long as man understands himself

as a reasonable living thing [Lebewesen], metaphysics, in Kant's words, belongs

to the nature [Natur] of man.19 On the other hand, if it is successful in getting

18 First philosophy or authentic philosophy, "$F*_ .__ & .<_, philosophy in the

primary sense, which Heidegger wants to ground. Metaphysics is also being

characterized here as the beginning of philosophy. First thinking, a play on "$F*_

.__ & .<_, is more basic than first philosophy, i.e., metaphysics.

19 Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (Second Edition, 1787), translated

by Norman Kemp Smith [1929] New York: St. Martin's Press (1965), p. 56. " . . .

metaphysics actually exists, if not as a science, yet still as a natural disposition

[Metaphysik ist, wenn gleich nichts als Wissenschaft, doch als Naturanlage]

(metaphysica naturalis)." (Kritik der reinen Vernunft, in Gesammelte Schriften

(1911), Band III, Berlin: Reimer, p. 41 [B 21].) In Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future

Metaphysics that Can Qualify as Science (1783), translated by Paul Carus [1902],

New York: Open Court (1988), metaphysics had also been referred to as a

back to the basis of metaphysics, thinking might well also occasion a change in

the essence of man, a change which brings along with it a transformation of

metaphysics.

If, therefore, in the development of the question about the truth of be[ing], we

speak about getting over metaphysics, this means keeping in mind be[ing] itself.

Such keeping in mind goes beyond what heretofore has been not thinking [das

Nichtdenken] about the ground of the root of philosophy. The thinking

attempted in Being and Time (1927) set out on a path to prepare for getting

over metaphysics so understood. However, the one who sets such thinking on its

way can only be what is itself to be [doing the] thinking [das zu Denkende

selbst].*20 That and how only be[ing] itself comes to thinking is never only or at

first the say of thinking. That and how be[ing] itself affects thinking brings

thinking to the verge of arising from be[ing] itself in order to be in accord with

be[ing] as such.*21

"natural tendency" of man (p. 135). (Prolegomena zu einer jeden künftigen

Metaphysik, die als Wissenschaft wird auftreten können, in Gesammelte

Schriften, Band IV, p. 363.)

20 *Fifth edition (1949): "was heißt Denken [what do we call thinking]?" (EWM

368) Variant: What cries out to be thought?

21 *Fifth edition (1949): "Ereignis [event / (the) coming into its own /

enownment]." (EWM 368)

But then when is such getting over metaphysics necessary? Should the one

discipline in philosophy that until now has been its root be merely undermined

and supplanted in this way by one that is more original? Is it a question of a

change in the doctrinal system of philosophy? No. Or, by getting to the bottom

of metaphysics, shall an until now overlooked precondition of philosophy be

uncovered, and it be settled that it does not yet stand on an unshakable

foundation and therefore cannot at this point be an unconditional science?

No.

The arrival or non-arrival on the scene of the truth of be[ing] is about something

else: not the constitution of philosophy, not just philosophy itself, but rather the

nearness [Nähe] and distance of that from which philosophy, as the formulating

thinking of be-ing as such, gets its essence and necessity. It has yet to be

decided whether be[ing] itself, in relationship to the essence of man, can*22

come into its own out of its own truth, or whether metaphysics, in its

estrangement from its basis, denies as in days gone by that the relationship of

be[ing] to the essence of man comes from the essence of this relationship itself

which man plays out [zum Gehören bringt] with be[ing].23

22 *Fifth edition (1949): "Brauch [customary usage]." (EWM 369)

23 Man and be[ing] perform the relationship in two-part counterpoint. I think

of Bach's two-part fugues or his Praeambula (Inventionen). Be[ing] calls the

Metaphysics has already formulated be[ing] beforehand in its answer to the

question about be-ing as such. It necessarily speaks of be[ing], and continually

of that. But metaphysics does not put be[ing] itself into words, since it does not

consider either be[ing] in its truth or truth as emergence, and this in its

essence.*24 The essence of truth25 appears to metaphysics only in the already

derived form of the truth of knowledge and statements about that. But

emergence might just be what is more original [Anfänglicheres] than truth in the

tune, man sings it. Be[ing] sounds the ground bass with which man harmonizes

and against which he plays the melody. This Bezug [relationship] is the Beiträge

zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis) [Contributions about Philosophy (On the Event)]

(1936-38), Gesamtausgabe 65 (1989) Frankfurt: Klostermann.

24 *Fifth edition (1949): "entbergende bergende Ge-währnis als Ereignis

[discovering hiding warranty as event / enownment]." (EWM 369)

25 See the essay of the same name, first published in 1930, in Wegmarken, pp.

177-202, and in the translations by R.F.C. Hull and Alan Crick, in Existence and

Being (1949) Washington: Regnery Gateway, 1988, pp. 292-324, and by John

Sallis, in Basic Writings (1977) San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco (rev. ed., 1993),

pp. 111-138.

sense of veritas.*26 Z__:____ might just be the word that gives an as yet

unexperienced glimpse into the unthought essence of esse [be]. If this should

be so, then, admittedly, the formulating thinking of metaphysics could never

arrive at that essence of truth, no matter how keenly it might look historically into

pre-Socratic philosophy, for it is not a question of some renaissance of pre-

Socratic philosophy (it would be vain and nonsensical to have something like

that in mind) but rather of paying attention to the arrival of the as yet unspoken

essence of emergence as what be[ing] has announced itself to be.*27 In the

meantime, metaphysics harbors the truth of be[ing] throughout its history from

Anaximander to Nietzsche. Why doesn't metaphysics think about it? Is the

omitting of such thinking just part of the nature [Art] of metaphysical thinking?

Or does it belong to the fate of the essence of metaphysics that it draws away

from its own basis, because in the realization [Aufgehen] of emergence what is

coming to pass [Wesende] in it, namely, hiddenness [Verborgenheit],*28 always

26 *Fifth edition (1949): "Veritas bei Thomas immer in intellectu, und sei der

intellectus divinus [veritas according to Thomas Aquinas is always in intellectu (in

the mind), and is the intellectus divinus (mind of God)]." (EWM 369)

27 *Fifth edition (1949): "Sein, Wahrheit, Welt, , Ereignis [be[ing], truth, world, [],

event / enownment]." (EWM 369) '' refers to 'Sein' not vocalized, unenunciated.

28 *Fifth edition (1949): "_:__ als Verbergung [forgetting as hiding]." (EWM 370)

(In EWM, there is a misprint of the spelling of _:__.)

fails to appear, in favor, as it happens, of what is emerging [das Unverborgenen]

emerging just so as to be able to appear as be-ing?

But now metaphysics continually and in the most various ways speaks about

be[ing]. It alone gives and reinforces the appearance of asking and answering

the question about be[ing]. But metaphysics never answers the question about

the truth of be[ing] because it does not ask the question. It doesn't ask because

it only has be[ing] in mind [denkt] while it formulates be-ing as be-ing. It means

be-ing as a whole [im Ganzen] but speaks of be[ing]. It names it be[ing] but

means be-ing as be-ing. From beginning to end, the statements of metaphysics

move in a strange sort of way in a general mix-up*29 about be-ing and be[ing].

Admittedly, we think of the mix-up as an eventuality [Ereignis] and not as a

mishap.30 In no way could it have its basis in mere thoughtlessness or hastiness

29 *Fifth edition (1949): "Verwechslung : die Gebundenheit in das Hinüber zu

Sein und das Herüber zu Seiendem. Eines steht stets im anderen und für das

andere, 'Auswechslung', 'Wechsel', bald so, bald so [mix-up: being caught up in

crossing over to be[ing] and crossing back to be-ing. The one is always in the

other and for the other, 'exchange', 'changeover / alteration', now this way,

now that]." (EWM 370)

30 This is a revealing use of the fundamental term in Heidegger's vocabulary,

'Ereignis'. In this passage, an 'Ereignis' is contrasted with a 'Fehler'. A 'Fehler' is a

mishap or mistake or accident, which comes unexpectedly, while an 'Ereignis' is

of speaking. Accordingly, thanks to this general mix-up, formulating attains the

height of confusion [Verwirrung] when one claims that metaphysics poses the

question about be[ing] [Seinsfrage].31

It seems almost as though metaphysics, in the way it thinks be-ing, were without

knowing it thereby shown to be the barrier that denies man the original*32

relationship of be[ing] to the essence of man [zum Menschenwesen].

But what if the nonoccurrence [Ausbleiben] of this relationship and the

forgottenness of this nonoccurrence were to determine the entire modern age?

What if the nonoccurrence of be[ing] leaves man ever more exclusively in the

an event that is bound to happen. It may have been planned or hoped for, as

in the usage when 'Ereignis' refers to the birth of a child.

31 The various combinations beginning with the morpheme 'Sein-' will be

translated with either "of be[ing]," by be[ing]," "of and by be[ing]," or "about

be[ing]." In every case, Heidegger sees the "action" of be[ing] in counterpoint

with the other element of the term; for example, in ' -verständnis', ' -

verlassenheit', ' -vergessenheit', or ' -geschick', be[ing] is both the source and

destination of the 'understanding', 'abandonment', 'forgottenness', or 'venture'.

32 *Fifth edition (1949): "Das an-fangende, im An-fangen wesende Ereignis --

brauchend -- die Enteignis [the originating, at the outset présenting eventuality -

- having use of (needing) -- dispossession (dépassement)." (EWM 370)

hands of be-ing, so that man almost abandons the relationship of be[ing] to his

essence (man's essence), and this abandonment at the same time remains

hidden? What if this were the case, and has been so for a long time now?

What if there were now indications that henceforth this forgottenness is

preparing for an even more decided forgottenness?

Would there still be reason for someone thinking in such a way to comport

himself arrogantly in the face of this venture [Geschick] of be[ing]? Would there

still be any reason to be led to believe in something else with such

abandonment of and by be[ing] [Seinsverlassenheit], and this entirely out of a

self-induced haughty mood? If that is the way it is with the forgottenness of

be[ing] [Seinsvergessenheit], would this not be reason enough for thinking which

thinks about be[ing] to consequently become horrified at not being able to do

anything but endure in dread this venture by be[ing], in order to bring thinking of

the forgottenness of be[ing] to resolution for the first time? But how would

thinking be able to do this, as long as the dread consigned to it is only a kind of

depressed mood [gedrückte Stimmung]? What does the venture of this dread

by be[ing] have to do with psychology and psychoanalysis?

But suppose getting over metaphysics corresponded to efforts to pay attention

for once to the forgottenness of be[ing], in order to experience it and

incorporate the experience into the relationship of be[ing] to man and look

after it there, then the question "What is metaphysics?", in distress [Not] about

the forgottenness of and by be[ing], would perhaps go on being what is most

necessary in what is necessary for thinking.

It thus means everything that thinking become more thoughtful in its own time.

That comes about when, instead of exerting a greater degree of effort, thinking

points to another origin. Thinking that is posited by be-ing as such and is

formulated and illuminated by it then, comes to be replaced by thinking that

comes into its own from be[ing] itself and in that way belongs to be[ing].

All efforts are at a loss that try to see how what is and remains only metaphysical

formulating is immediately to be put into action in a more effective and useful

way in ordinary everyday life [Leben]. For the more thoughtful thinking

becomes, the more appropriately it is fulfilled by the relationship of be[ing] to it,

the more purely thinking really comes on its own to behave in a way that is

appropriate only to it in thinking of what is destined for it [des ihm Zu-

gedachten]*33 and therefore of what has already been thought of

[Gedachten].34

But who still recalls what has been thought of?35 People think things up. To get

thinking on a path so that, in relationship with be[ing] it gets to the essence of

man, to open a pathway for thinking expressly to consider be[ing] in its truth*36 is

what the thinking of Being and Time is "about [unterwegs]." In this way, and that

33 Variant: . . . what one is to have thought . . ..

*Fifth edition (1949): "Zu-gesagten, Ge-währten, Ereigneten [what is to

have been said, what has been afforded / brought forth, what has eventuated

/ been brought into its own / come to pass]."

34 In that event, what is thought of (remembered) and what is thought about

coincide.

35 "Doch wer denkt noch an Gedachtes?" (EWM 372) Variant: To whom does

it occur to think about what has already been thought about? The point is that

most people are sure that everything worth thinking about has already been

thought through thoroughly enough, especially such matters as what counts as

worth thoughtful reflection, was heißt Denken.

36 *Fifth edition (1949): "Wahrnis als Ereignis [observance as eventuality]."

(EWM 372) 'Wahrnis' is thus being considerate of, looking after, observing (as

one would an anniversary or religious feast) the truth of be[ing].

means in the service of the question of the truth of be[ing], reflection on the

essence of man becomes necessary, since the unspoken because still to be

accomplished experience of the forgottenness of be[ing] includes the all-

important suspicion that, in consequence of the emergence of be[ing], the

relationship of human nature [Menschenwesen] to be[ing] indeed belongs to

be[ing] itself. Yet how could such surmising as is experienced here ever even

become an explicit question without already having made every effort

beforehand to eliminate the determination of the essence of man as subjectivity

[Subjektivität] and also as animal rationale? In order at the same time to find

one word for the relationship of be[ing] to the essence of man and for the

essential relation [Wesensverhältnis] of man to the openness ["there [Da]"] of

be[ing] as such, the term "existence [Dasein]" was chosen for that essential

sphere in which man is man. This happened even though the term is also used

by metaphysics for what has come to be called existentia [being]37, actuality

[Wirklichkeit], reality [Realität] and objectivity [Objektivität], and although the

everyday way of speaking [in German] about "menschliche Dasein [human

existence]" makes use of the metaphysical meaning of the word. But every

rethinking [Nach-denken] of it is obstructed, though, if one feels satisfied in

finding out that in Being and Time the word 'existence' is used instead of

37 According to the entry 'essence' in the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd. ed.,

1989), the word 'essentia' is a "fictitious present participle of esse, to be, in

imitation of Greek ∫&<_."

'consciousness [Bewußtsein]'. As if it were here merely a matter of the

employment of a different usage of words, as if it were not about the one and

only [thing that matters]: to bring about thinking through the relationship of

be[ing] to the essence of man and thus, to our way of thinking, [to] above all

[bring about] what is for our leading question an adequate essential experience

of man. 'Existence' neither merely takes the place of the word 'consciousness',

nor does that "thing [Sache]" called "existence" take the place of what we

formulate in the term 'consciousness'. Moreover, what is termed "existence"

should first of all be experienced and consequently then thought of as a "place

[Stelle]," namely, the habitat of the truth of be[ing].

What is thought in the term 'existence' throughout the treatise on Being and Time

is already given in the principle that says: "The 'essence' of existence lies in its life

[Existenz]" (p. 67).38

Admittedly, if one considers that in the language of metaphysics the term

'existence [Existenz]' itself names what 'existence [Dasein]' means, namely, the

actuality of anything that is actual [jedes beliebigen Wirklichen], from God to a

grain of sand, then the difficulty of thinking [des zu Denkende] the principle

when one only casually understands it is displaced from the term "Dasein" onto

38 Being and Time, translated by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson

(1962) Oxford: Basil Blackwell [= Sein und Zeit, Gesamtausgabe 2, p. 55].

the term "Existenz." In Being and Time the word 'life [Existenz]' is used expressly as

the expression for the be[ing] of man. Correctly thought, "life" may be thought

of as the "essence" of existence in whose openness be[ing] manifests and hides

itself, affords and withdraws itself [sich bekündet und verbirgt, gewährt und

entzieht], without the truth of be[ing] exhausting itself in existence or letting itself

be at one with it after the fashion of the metaphysical principle that all

objectivity as such is subjectivity.

What is the meaning of 'life' in Being and Time? The term names a way of

be[ing] [Weise des Seins], in fact the be[ing] of that [kind of] be-ing [Seiende]

which stands open[ly] for the openness of be[ing], within which it stands while it

withstands [aussteht] it. This withstanding [Ausstehen] is gone through in the

name of "sorrow [Sorge]."39 The ecstatic [ekstatische] essence of existence is

thought of as sorrow, just as, conversely, sorrow is experienced adequately only

in the ecstatic essence [of existence]. Experienced in this way, withstanding is

39 "Dieses Ausstehen wird unter dem namen 'Sorge' erfahren." (EWM 374)

Variants: This ek-stasis goes by the name of sorrow. It goes by the name (as an

alias) sorrow. In English translations of Being and Time 'care' has been the alias

of 'sorrow'. For an argument for the translation of 'Sorge' as "sorrow," see the Part

Two of my book Preparatory Thinking in Heidegger's Teaching (1987) New York:

Philosophical Library.

here of the essence for thinking ekstasis.40 The ecstatic essence of life is

therefore still inadequately understood when one formulates it only as "standing

beyond"41 and takes the "beyond [Hinaus]" to be an "away from [Weg von]" the

inside [Innern] of an immanence [Immanenz] of consciousness and spirit [Geist],

for so understood life would in this way still be formulated as "subjectivity" and

"substance," while the "out" as what is outside [Auseinander] the openness of

be[ing] itself would have yet to be thought. Strange as it may sound, the stasis42

in the ek-static has its basis in being an instance [Innestehen] of the "out" "there"

[im "Aus" und "Da"] of emergence as which be[ing] itself comes to pass. What is

to be thought by the term 'life' can very beautifully be termed "urgency

[Inständigkeit],"43 if the term is used in thinking to in this way think the truth of

be[ing] and to think it through [ihr denkt aus]. But then in particular we must

40 "Das so erfahrene Ausstehen ist das Wesen der hier zu denkenden Ekstasis."

(EWM 374)

41 Variant: . . . standing apart from . . ..

42 The fundamental meaning of &*6&_( with which Heidegger is working in

this passage is, of course, at play with Ü_&*_&_(. &*6&_( here means one's

position on a matter, while Ü_&*_&_( effects a change of position, changing of

one's mind.

43 Or: "(em)ergency." Existence is nature's emergency situation. To be human

is to be pressed of one's own doing to do things.

think the instance of the openness of be[ing], the bearing [Austragen]44 of such

an instance (sorrow), and enduring [Ausdauern] in extremity [im Äußersten]

(be[ing] to the utmost45 [Sein zum Tode])*46 all together [and] at the same time,

and as the complete essence of life.*47

Be-ing in the mode of life is human [be-ing]. Only man exists.48 A rock is, but it

does not exist. A tree is, but it does not exist. A horse is, but it does not exist. An

angel is, but it does not exist. God is, but he does not exist.49 The statement that

44 Or: . . . giving birth to . . ..

45 Or: . . . to the nth degree . . .; that is, to death.

46 *Fifth edition (1949): "Auf sich zu-kommen lassen den Tod, sich halten in der

Ankunft des Todes als des Ge-Birgs des s [to leave it open for death to come to

pass, to hold out for the arrival of death as the salvage of []]." (EWM 374)

47 *Fifth edition (1949): "Wohnen, das 'bauende' [living / dwelling, the

'cultivating' / 'growing']." (EWM 374)

48 Variants: Only man exists. Only the human kind of be-ing exists.

49 "Das Seiende, das in der Weise der Existenz ist, ist der Mensch. Der Mensch

allein existiert. Der Fels ist, aber er existiert nicht. Der Baum ist, aber er existiert

nicht. Das Pferd ist, aber es existiert nicht. Der Engel ist, aber es existiert nicht.

Gott ist, aber er existiert nicht." (EWM 374)

"only man exists" in no way means to say that only the human [kind of] be-ing is

real, and thus every other [kind of] be-ing is unreal and only a semblance

[Schein] or idea [Vorstellung] for man. The statement that "man exists" means

that man is the only [kind of] be-ing whose be[ing] is marked by be[ing] as the

outstanding instance [offenstehende Innestehen] of the emergence of

be[ing].50 The*51 existential essence [existentiale Wesen] of man is the basis of

what man can formulate as be-ing of any sort and for what he can be

conscious of that is so formulated. All consciousness presupposes life thought

ecstatically as the essentia of man, where essentia means what man comes to

be insofar as he is man. By contrast, consciousness neither first creates the

openness of be-ing nor first confers on man his being open [Offensein] for be-

ing. Whither and whence and in what open dimension, then, could all

I take the opening sentences of this paragraph to be essential to

understanding Heidegger. The verb 'existieren' is reserved exclusively for the

human kind of be-ing. Forms of 'sein' apply to everything else: things of nature,

things fabricated by human beings, divine things. 'Existenz' is human life, the life

of 'biography', the life that has, makes and is (a) history.

50 Human be-ing is notable "in the eyes of" be[ing]. We who exist, who can

say "we" and therefore "we exist," are marked men, marked by the blaze of

existence.

51 *Fifth edition (1949): "ereignet-gebrauchte [eventful-accustomed]." (EWM

375)

intentionality of consciousness move if man were in essence not already

urgency? What else (if anyone has seriously thought about this) could the word

'-sein' mean in the terms 'Bewußtsein' and 'Selbstbewußtsein [self-consciousness]'

except the existential essence of what exists, which is that in which it exists? To

be a self is, of course, the mark of the essence of the be-ing of the sort of thing

that exists, but life neither consists in being a self [Selbstsein]52 nor is itself

determined by this. However, since metaphysical thinking characterizes man's

selfness as a substance, or what is at bottom the same, as subjectivity, the path

that first leads away from metaphysics to the ecstatic-existential essence of man

must get past the metaphysical determination of the selfness of man (Being and

Time §§ 63 and 64).53

52 Or selfness, as below. Some of Heidegger's neologisms ending in '-sein'

seem to have been inspired by the peculiar construction of the noun

'Bewußtsein', which literally means "knownness" or "what is to have been known."

Thus 'Selbstsein' would mean "what is to be itself."

53 These are the sections entitled "Die für eine Interpretation des Seinssinnes

der Sorge gewonnene hermeneutische Situation und der methodische

Charakter der existenzialen Analytik überhaupt [The Kind of Hermeneutic

Situation Reached for the Interpretation of the Sense of Be[ing] and the

Methodological Character of the Existential Analytic in General]" and "Sorge

und Selbstheit [Sorrow and Selfhood]." See Being and Time, pp. 358-370 [= Sein

und Zeit, Gesamtausgabe 2, pp. 411-428].

But now because the question about life always stands at the disposal of the

sole question for thinking, namely, the first question has yet to be unfolded about

the truth of be[ing] as the hidden basis of all metaphysics, the title of the treatise

that attempts to get to the bottom of metaphysics is therefore not Life and Time,

or Consciousness and Time, but Being and Time. Nor, however, let us think of the

title as anything like the well-known [pairs] be[ing] and becoming, be[ing] and

semblance,54 be[ing] and thinking, be[ing] and having to [Sollen]. For there

be[ing] is always designated narrowly exactly as if "becoming," "seeming,"

"thinking," and "having to" did not belong to be[ing], even though it is clear they

still are not nothing [nichts] and so belong to be[ing]. In Being and Time, be[ing]

is none other than "time," as long as "time" goes by its "first name [Vorname]"55,

the truth of be[ing], and is thus be[ing] itself. But now why "time" and "be[ing]"?

Thinking about the beginning of the history of be[ing] that reveals itself in the

thinking of the Greeks will show that the Greeks early on experienced the

be[ing] of be-ing as the presence of what is presenting itself [die Answesenheit

des Anwesenden]. If we translate _®___ with 'be', the translation is linguistically

correct, but we merely replace one word [Wortlaut] with another. If we

54 Or: seeming, sembling.

55 The 'Vorname' is the given name of a person. Heidegger here suggests

that "the truth of be[ing]" is the earliest name for time.

question ourselves, however, it immediately comes to light that we neither think

_®___ in a Greek way56 nor, correspondingly, think "be" with a clear and

unambiguous determination [Bestimmung]. What do we say, then, when we

say "be" instead of _®___, and _®___ and esse instead of "be"'? We say

nothing.57 The Greek, Latin and German words are all obtuse in the same way.

In our customary usage, we give ourselves away as being merely trendsetters

for the greatest thoughtlessness that has ever gone on in thinking and which

remains in power to this very hour. For _®___ means [to] make present

[anwesen]58. The essence of making present is buried deep in the original name

for be[ing]. For us, however, _®___ and ∫&<_ [(a) being] (as "_$- and t" ,&<_)59

already say the following: in making present, the present and lasting, unthought

and hidden, are at work; time is present. Accordingly, be[ing] as such is born of

time.60 Thus time is referred back to emergence, that is, [to] the truth of be[ing].

56 That is, speaking Greek.

57 "Wir sagen nichts." (EWM 376) Variant: We don't really say anything at all.

58 Or: making a present (gift) of.

59 "_$ ∫&<_ means "presence" (with beings); t" ,&<_ means absence (without

any being).

60 "Sein als solches ist demnach unverborgen aus Zeit." (EWM 374) Variant:

Accordingly, be[ing] as such comes (out) of time / (just) in (the nick of) time.

But the time to be thought of now is not experienced in some sort of outcome of

[a kind of] be-ing. Time is obviously of a wholly different nature [Wesen]*61,

which is not merely unthought of so far in the metaphysical concept of time, but

will never be thought in it. Thus time becomes the first name of what still has to

be considered about the truth of be[ing] and experienced for the first time.

Be[ing] is in and of time. Heidegger here implies a neologism 'unverbergen'

used transitively.

61 *Fifth edition (1949): "Zeit ist vierdimensional: Die erste, alles versammelnde

Dimension ist die Nähe [Time is four-dimensional: the first, all-encompassing

dimension is imminence]." (EWM 377) A fifth dimension must be supposed to

provide access to the other four: time, volume, surface, length. Or is this further

dimension coincident with the pre-dimensional point? 'Nähe' means nearness in

time, impendence (with a suggestion of danger), which is contrasted with what

is long ago and far away, distant in time and difficult to regain. These extremes

meet and have their origin for thinking in be[ing].

This Introduction drew out of Heidegger clarifications of a kind that are

rare in his writings, let alone in the notes he made in his copies of his books.

Heidegger's note at this point in the text provides a hint about the importance of

the Introduction among Heidegger's ventures in thinking. A certain frontier is

reached here, the view from which is powerfully evocative.

Just as the hidden essence of time says something about the first metaphysical

name for be[ing], so it also says something about its last name: "the eternal

return of the equivalent." In the era [Epoche] of metaphysics*62 the history of

be[ing] is at work in the unthought of essence of time. This time is space, not co-

ordinated, but also not merely ordered [eingeordnet].*63

Any attempt to get from formulating be-ing as such to thinking about the truth

of be[ing] must in a certain way also formulate the truth of be[ing] in every

formulating embarked upon, so that such formulating is necessarily different in

kind from what is to be thought and, as formulating, ultimately inappropriate to

it. The relationship of the truth of be[ing] to human nature [Menschenwesen]

that derives from metaphysics is interpreted as "understanding." But that being

the case, understanding is thought by [aus] the emergence of be[ing]. Inwardly

begotten, it is what is given forth [Entwurf] ecstatically, that is, in the sphere of

the open.*64 The sphere delivered up*65 as open in begetting, by which

62 *Fifth edition (1949): "Diese Epoche ist die ganze Geschichte des Seins [This

era is the whole history of be[ing]]." (EWM 377)

63 *Fifth edition (1949): "Zeit-Raum [time-space]." (EWM 377) That is, space is

not conceived according to the schema of the three geometric co-ordinates.

64 "Es ist der ekstatische, d.h. im Bereich des Offenen innestehende

geworfene Entwurf." (EWM 377)

something (in this case be[ing]) turns out to be something (in this case be[ing] as

itself in its emergence), is called sense [Sinn]*66 (cf. Being and Time, pp. 192-

93)67. "Sense of be[ing]" and "truth of be[ing]" speak of the same thing.68

Assuming that time belongs to the truth of be[ing] in an as yet hidden way, then

every begetting that keeps the truth of be[ing] open as the understanding of

*Fifth edition (1949): "Geworfenheit und Ereignis. Werfen, Zu-werfen,

Schicken; Ent-Wurf: dem Wurf entsprechen [begottenness and eventuality.

Begetting, expelling, sending; pro-geny: corresponding to the utterance]." (EWM

377)

65 *Fifth edition (1949): "sich zu-bringt [is brought to]." (EWM 377) That is, in the

way a ship is "brought to" (turned into the wind).

66 *Fifth edition (1949): "Sinn -- Wegrichtung des Sach-Verhalts [sense -- setting

the course of the fact of the matter]." (EWM 377)

67 Sein und Zeit, p. 201. The passage is part of Section 32, "Verstehen und

Auslegung [Understanding and Explanation]." 'Auslegung' is displaying

something, getting it out into the open, delivering oneself of it.

68 "'Sinn von Sein' und 'Wahrheit des Seins' sagen das Selbe." (EWM 377) 'Die

Gleiche' is "the equivalent"; 'das Selbe' is "the same (thing)."

be[ing] has to look to time as the possible*69 horizon [möglichen Horizont] of the

understanding of and by be[ing] (cf. Being and Time, §§ 31-34 and 68).70

On the first page of Being and Time the preface of the treatise closes with the

following sentences: "The intention of the following treatise is the concrete

elaboration of the question about the sense of be[ing]. The interpretation of

69 *Fifth edition (1949): "ermöglichen [possibilizing]." (EWM 378)

70 These are the sections entitled "Das Da-sein als Verstehen [Being There as

Understanding]," "Verstehen und Auslegung [Understanding and Explanation],"

"Die Aussage als abkünftiger Modus der Auslegung [The Statement (Proposition)

as the Original Mode of Explanation]," "Da-sein und Rede. Die Sprache [Being

There and Speech. Language]," and "Die Zeitlichkeit der Erschlossenheit

überhaupt. a) Die Zeitlichkeit des Verstehens. (b) Die Zeitlichkeit der

Befindlichkeit. c) Die Zeitlichkeit der Verfallens. d) Die Zeitlichkeit der Rede. [The

Temporality of Openness. a) The Temporality of Understanding. b) The

Temporality of Situatedness. c) The Temporality of Distractedness. d) The

Temporality of Speech]," Being and Time, pp. 182-210, 384-401 [= Sein und Zeit,

pp. 190-221, 444-463]. I have translated 'Da-sein' with "being there" when it is

hyphenated.

time as an exposing71 of the possible horizon of any kind of understanding of

be[ing] is its provisional goal."72

Philosophy cannot easily find clearer evidence for the power of the

forgottenness of be[ing], in which all philosophy is immersed and which has at

the same time become and continues to be the fateful claim of thinking in

Being and Time, than the instinctive assurance with which it has by-passed the

only real question of Being and Time. But this is not a question of

misunderstandings regarding a book, but rather of our abandonment of and by

be[ing].

Metaphysics speaks of what be-ing is as be-ing; it offers a _@_ ( (statement

[Aussage]) about Ø_ [be-ing]. The later term "ontology" indicates its essence,

supposing, that is, that we interpret the term according to its own proper

content and not in a narrow scholastic sense. Metaphysics moves in the realm

71 Compared to 'Auslegung', which displays the obvious, 'Interpretation'

exposes what lies hidden in a matter, exhumes it.

72 "Die konkrete Ausarbeitung der Frage nach dem Sinn von 'Sein' ist die

Absicht der folgenden Abhandlung. Die Interpretation der Zeit als des

möglichen Horizontes eines jeden Seinsverständnisses überhaupt ist ihr

vorläufiges Ziel."

of ∞_ † Ø_ [be-ing as be-ing]. Its formulating concerns be-ing as be-ing. In this

way, metaphysics always formulates be-ing as such as a whole as the be-

ingness [Seiendheit] of be-ing (the ∫&<_ [presence] of Ø_). But metaphysics

formulates the be-ingness of be-ing in a twofold way: in the first place, as the

entirety [das Ganze] of be-ing as such, in the sense of the most general (∞_

___@_ ,, _ __@_ [be-ing on the whole, what is in common]; and at the same time,

however, as the entirety of be-ing as such, in the sense of the highest and

thereby divine be-ing (∞_ ___@_ ,, t_$@*_* _, __¢ _ [the universal, what is the

furthermost, divinity]). The emergence of be-ing was developed in its twofold

sense especially in the metaphysics of Aristotle (cf. Metaphysics _, _, _).

Because it makes be-ing as be-ing an idea, metaphysics in itself is in fact two-in-

one: the truth of be-ing in the most general sense and in the highest sense. In its

essence it is ontology, in the narrower [scholastic] sense, and theology. This

onto-theological essence of authentic philosophy ("$F*_ .__ & .<_73) must indeed

be accounted for by the way it brings Ø_, that is, as Ø_, out into the open. The

theological character of ontology is not due so much to the fact that Greek

metaphysics was later absorbed by Christian sacred theology and transformed

by it. It is due more to the means by which be-ing as be-ing had disclosed itself

[sich entborgen hat] from early on. That emergence of be-ing first made it

possible for Greek philosophy to overpower Christian theology, whether to its

73 First philosophy or philosophy in the primary sense.

benefit or detriment may be decided by theologians of the Christian experience

as they consider what is written in the apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthians:

∫0° Ö_F$____ ± __≠( *ã_ & .<__ * ∑ _@&_ ,P (1 Cor. 1:20): "Has not God let the

wisdom of this world become foolishness?"74 But the & .<__ * ∑ _@&_ ,P [wisdom

of this world] is that which, according to 1:22, what the ^______( __* ∑&__, the

Greeks are searching for. Aristotle even expressly calls "$F*_ .__ & .<_ [authentic

philosophy] __* ,_8__, what is sought [die gesuchte]. What if Christian theology

were to decide to take seriously the words of the apostle just for once and so

also the foolishness of philosophy?

Metaphysics as the truth of be-ing as such takes on two forms. But the basis of its

dual form and indeed its origin remain closed off to metaphysics, though not

accidentally or as the result of an omission. Metaphysics accepts this dual form

since it is what it is: the formulating of be-ing as be-ing. Metaphysics has no

choice. It is excluded by its own nature as metaphysics from the experience of

be[ing], for be-ing (Ø_), as formulated by metaphysics, always formulates

nothing but what has already been indicated as be-ing († Ø_). But metaphysics

74 "Hat nicht zur Torheit werden lassen der Gott die Weisheit der Welt?" (EWM

379)

never even pays attention to what has been hidden in this Ø_, insofar as it has

been allowed to come out [unverborgen].75

And so the time necessarily came to think over [nachdenken] what is actually

said about Ø_ by the word 'be-ing [seiend]'. Accordingly, the question about

Ø_ took deeper root [wieder geholt] in thinking (cf. the preface to Being and

Time). But such repeating [Widerholen] does not merely parrot the Platonic-

Aristotelian question, but rather asks in return [fragen zurück] what is in hiding in

Ø_.*76

75 'Verbergen' means "to hide," used either intransitively (hiding oneself,

going into hiding) or transitively (concealing something from view). Taken

intransitively, the state of being in hiding is seclusion [Verborgenheit]. Coming

out of seclusion is expressed by the neologism 'unverbergen' and translated as

"(to) emerge." In this passage, a form of the verb 'unverbergen' is being used

transitively and in the passive mood. Thus, one is brought out of seclusion. So it is

in the case of any sort of be-ing, which is brought out of seclusion thanks to

be[ing], not by virtue of its be-ing.

76 *Fifth edition (1949): "der Unterschied [the difference]." (EWM 380)

The question "What is metaphysics?" asks a "backwards" question. Many

of those who heard the lecture in 1929 surely wondered why the question had

Metaphysics continues to be founded on what is hidden [das Verborgene] in

Ø_, even when its formulating is devoted to ∞_ † Ø_ [be-ing as be-ing]. Inquiring

in [re]turn [Zurückfragen] [in]to what, from the point of view of metaphysics, is

hidden searches about for the foundation [Fundament] of ontology. That is why

the procedure in Being and Time (p. 34)77 is called "fundamental ontology." But

in this case, as with every such term, the nomenclature proves from the start to

be unfortunate. It says something correct about metaphysics as it is understood

here, yet for that very reason leads to error, for it is out to accomplish in thinking

the transition from metaphysics to the truth of be[ing]. As long as such thinking

about the truth of be[ing] is described only as fundamental ontology, the

designation gets in its own way and obscures it. Of course, the term

"fundamental ontology" suggests the view that thinking which attempts to think

the truth of be[ing] and not, like all ontology, the truth of be-ing, is even as

fundamental ontology still a kind [Art] of ontology. Meanwhile, thinking of the

truth of be[ing] as getting to the bottom of metaphysics has with the first step it

takes already abandoned the sphere of all ontology. By comparison, all

philosophy that turns on a straightforward or indirect formulating of

"transcendence" necessarily remains ontology in an essential sense, whether it

been raised at all. Moreover, the lecture "answers" the question raised in the title

with another question, What is be[ing]?

77 Sein und Zeit, p. 18. The text of Wegmarken cites p. 13.

wants to effect a laying of the foundation of metaphysics or to assure us that it

rejects ontology as a conceptual freezing of living [Erleben].

Indeed, if thinking that now attempts to think the truth of be[ing] gets caught up

in formulating because of a long habit of formulating be-ing, then as a first

consideration as well as occasion for the transition from formulating to

recollective [andenkende] thinking, probably nothing is more necessary than

the question, "What is metaphysics?"

For its own part, the unfolding of this question in the following lecture concludes

with a question. It is called the basic question of metaphysics and goes: Why

be-ing, after all, and not rather no-thing?78 Since then, much has been said

back and forth about the dread and no-thing which are spoken about in the

lecture. But it has not yet occurred to people to think over [überliegen] why a

lecture that attempts to think from thinking of the truth of be[ing] to [thinking] of

no-thing, and from there to the essence of metaphysics, claims that the question

just given is the basic question of metaphysics. For the attentive listener, isn't

there really something to be voiced that must be weightier than all the

enthusiasm about dread and no-thing? The final question confronts us with the

consideration that reflection which attempts to think of a way beyond no-thing

78 "Warum ist überhaupt Seiendes und nicht vielmehr Nichts?" (EWM 381)

Variant: Why is there any kind of be-ing and not no-thing instead?

to be[ing] in the end returns once again to a question about be-ing. Inasmuch

as this question, in being introduced with Why?, asks causally in the

conventional way of metaphysics, thinking of be[ing] is completely disavowed in

favor of formulating knowledge about be-ing from [aus] be-ing. To top it all off,

the final question is obviously the question that the metaphysician Leibniz put in

his Principes de la Nature et de la Grâce (Fondé en Raison) [Principles of Nature

and Grace (Based on Reason)]: "Pourquoi il y a plûtot quelque chose que

rien?"79

Does the lecture thus fall behind in its proper intention, which is possible after all

given the difficulty of the transition from metaphysics to the other [way of]

thinking? In the end, does it with Leibniz*80 ask the metaphysical question about

the supreme cause of all actual things [seienden Sachen]? Why, then, is

Leibniz's name not mentioned, which no doubt would be proper?

Or is the question asked in a wholly different sense? If it does not inquire about

be-ing and ascertain the first actual cause of it, then the question must start out

79 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Leibniz: Die philosophischen Schriften, edited by

C.I. Gerhardt (Berlin, 1875-90), Volume VI, p. 607, n.7. Heidegger omits the

phrase "based on reason" in Leibniz's title. The work was written in 1714, though

not published by the author.

80 *Fifth edition (1949): "und Schelling [and Schelling]." (EWM 382)

from that which is not be-ing [was nicht das Seiende ist]. That is what the

question speaks of, and it capitalizes it [das Nichts], which the lecture has

considered as its only theme. The requirement is obviously to think through the

end of the lecture for once from within its own and always leading perspective.

That which is called the basic question of metaphysics would be consummated

then in a fundamental-ontological way in a question from the very ground [aus

dem Grunde] of metaphysics and as a question about this ground.

But granted that, at its conclusion, the lecture is on course to what concerns it,

how then should we understand the question?

It runs: Why be-ing, after all, and not rather no-thing? Assuming that we no

longer think metaphysically in the customary way of metaphysics, but rather

from [aus] the essence and truth of metaphysics to the truth of be[ing], it may

now also be asked: How does it happen that be-ing always has the right of way

and takes advantage on its own of every "is," while that which is not [an

instance of] be-ing, that no-thing so understood as be[ing] itself, remains

forgotten? How does it happen that it [Es]*81 can really come of be[ing]*82 and

81 *Fifth edition (1949): "für die Metaphysik [for metaphysics]." (EWM 382) That

is, what is, for metaphysics, no-thing. This is the "es" of "es gibt."

82 Fifth edition (1949): "als solchen [as such]." (EWM 382) See the next note.

no-thing is not actually present [nicht west]?83 Is it because of this that all

metaphysics makes it appear inconcussible that "be[ing]" goes without saying84

and therefore no-thing looks like be-ing?85 That is indeed the way it is with

be[ing] and no-thing. Were it otherwise, then Leibniz could not have said in the

same place by way of clarification: "Car le rien est plus simple et plus facile que

quelque chose."86

83 "Woher kommt es, daß Es mit dem Sein eigentlich nichts ist und das Nichts

eigentlich nicht west?" (EWM 382) This is certainly the climactic question of the

essay. Variant: How does it happen that nothing comes of be[ing] / it is actually

nothing to be and no-thing does not come to be? It seems to me that

Heidegger's usage of 'Sein' here justifies my translation of the word throughout as

'be'.

84 That is, that the word 'Sein' is unspoken in every articulation of any kind of

be-ing. Be[ing] is taken for granted in be-ing.

85 "Kommt gar von hier der unerschütterte Anschein in alle Metaphysik, daß

sich 'Sein' von selbst verstehe und daß sich demzufolge das Nichts leichter

mache als Seiende?" (EWM 382)

86 "Since nothing is simpler and easier than something."

Which is more puzzling: this, that be-ing is; or this, that be[ing] "is"?87 Or in this

reflection do we not also already approach the vicinity [Nähe] of the riddle that

has eventuated sich ereignet]*88 with the be[ing] of*89 be-ing?

But whatever the answer may be, in the meantime the time should have

become riper to think through the much beleaguered lecture "What Is

Metaphysics?" for once from its conclusion, from its end, not from an imaginary

one.

87 "Was bleibt rätselhafter, dies, daß Seiendes ist, oder dies, daß Sein 'ist'?"

(EWM 383)

88 Variant: . . . has come to pass . . ..

*Fifth edition (1949): "Ereignis der Vergessenheit des Unterschieds [the

eventuality of the forgottenness of the difference]." (EWM 383)

89 *Fifth edition (1949): "der Unterschied [the difference]." (EWM 383)

WHAT IS METAPHYSICS? (1929)

"What is metaphysics?" The question leads one to expect talk about

metaphysics. We will forgo that. Instead we will elucidate a definite

metaphysical question. In this way, it seems, we will be placed in the midst of

metaphysics. Only thus will we make it really possible for metaphysics to explain

itself.

Our task begins by presenting a metaphysical question, goes on to elaborate

the question, and ends with its answer.

The Presentation of a Metaphysical Question

According to Hegel, philosophy is from the point of view of good common sense

"the world turned upside down."90 The peculiarity of our undertaking therefore

90 "Die Philosophie ist ihrer Natur nach etwas esoterisches, für sich weder für

den Pöbel gemacht, noch einer Zubereitung für den Pöbel fähig; sie ist nur

dadurch Philosophie daß sie dem Verstande, und damit noch mehr dem

gesunden Menschenverstande, worunter man die lokale und temporäre

requires some preparatory remarks. This results from the twofold character of

metaphysical questions.

First, every metaphysical question always grasps the whole of the problematic of

metaphysics. In every case it is the whole itself. Furthermore, every

metaphysical question can only be asked in such a way that the one doing the

questioning, such as he is, is there (in) the question, that is, is put into question.

From this we take the following directive: a metaphysical question must be put

in its entirety and from the essential position of (the) questioning existence [des

fragenden Daseins]. We, here and now, question on our own behalf. Our

existence in the community of scholars, teachers and students is determined by

Beschränktheit eines Geschlechts der Menschen versteht, gerade

entgegengesetzt ist; im Verhähltniß zu diesem ist an und für sich die Welt der

Philosophie eine verkehrte." G.W.F. Hegel, "Einleitung. Über das Wesen der

philosophischen Kritik überhaupt, und ihr Verhältnis zum gegenwärtigen Zustand

der Philosophie insbesonderes[ Introduction. On the Essence of Philosophical

Criticism in General, and its Relation to the Present State of Philosophy in

Particular]" (1802), in Hegel's Gesammelte Werke, edited by Hartmut Buchner

and Otto Pöggeler (Hamburg: Meiner, 1968) IV, p. 124-25. The text is Hegel's

general introduction to the Critical Journal of Philosophy which he and Schelling

edited.

science. What is really happening to us at the heart [im Grunde] of our

existence, now that science has become our passion?

The fields of science are widely separated from each other. Their ways of

dealing with the objects they inquiry about are fundamentally different. In our

time such dissociated diversity of disciplines is held together only thanks to the

technical organization of the universities and their faculties, and is given

meaning by establishing a common practical aim for the various departments.

But, as a result, close contact among the sciences in their essential common

ground has died off.

And yet—in all the sciences, when we follow their own most proper aim we

relate ourselves to be-ing itself. Precisely from the point of view of science, no

field takes precedence over the others, neither nature over history nor vice

versa. No one method of dealing with objects dominates the others.

Mathematical knowledge is no stricter than philological-historical knowledge. It

merely has the character of "exactness," which is not the same as strictness. To

demand exactness of the study of history goes against the specific strictness of

the humanities [Geisteswissenschaften]. The relationship [Bezug] to the world

prevailing in all the sciences as such allows them to look for be-ing itself with a

view to making it an object of investigation and substantiating definition

according to its whatness [Wasgehalt] and mode of being [Seinsart]. The idea is

that the sciences effect a rapprochement [In-die-Nähe-kommen] with the

essential [Wesentlichen] in all things [Dinge].

This distinctive relationship of the world to be-ing itself is borne out and guided

by a freely adopted attitude [Haltung] of human life [meschlichen Existenz]. To

be sure, man's prescientific and extra-scientific dealings are also related to be-

ing. But science is distinctive in that, in its own way, it lets the matter itself [die

Sache selbst] explicitly and solely have the last word. With such objectivity

[Sachlichkeit] of questioning, defining and substantiating, a certain limited

submission to be-ing itself is effected, so that it can thereby itself. This submissive

position taken by research and teaching comes to be the basis of the possibility

of a unique, though limited kind of guiding influence on the entirety of human

life. The particular relationship of science to the world and the guiding attitude

of man within it can be fully conceptualized, of course, only when we see and

grasp what happens in a relationship to the world attained in this way. Man—

one [kind of] be-ing among others—"pursues the sciences." In this "pursuit"

nothing less happens than the disruption by one be-ing, called man, of the

entirety of be-ing, so that in and through this disruption be-ing thereby gives over

what and how it is. In its own way, this eruptive disruption helps be-ing first come

into its own.

In its radical unity, this trinality—relationship to the world, attitude, invasion—

brings an enlivening simplicity and keenness to existence [Da-sein]91 in the life of

science [wissenschaftliche Existenz]. If we expressly take over for ourselves such

an enlightened scientific existence [Da-sein], then we must say:

That to which the relationship to the world refers is be-ing itself—and nothing

more [und sonst nichts].92,*93

91 'Da-sein' (hyphenated) stresses the being there of existence and will be

translated as "being there." This instance and the next occurrence of 'Da-sein'

are exceptions.

92 "Worauf der Weltbezug geht, ist das Seiende selbst -- und sonst nichts."

(WM 105) Variant: The relationship to the world extends to be-ing -- and nothing

else besides.

93 *First edition (1929): "Man hat diesen Zusatz hinter dem Gedankenstrich als

willkürlich und künstlich ausgegeben und weiß nicht, daß Taine, der als Vertreter

und Zeichen eines ganzen, noch herrschenden Zeitalters genommen werden

kann, wissentlich diese Formel zur Kennzeichnung seiner Grundstellung und

Absicht gebraucht [The addition after the hyphen may seem arbitrary and

artificial without knowing that Taine, who can be called the representative and

symbol of the whole of the still prevailing era, knowingly used this formula as the

characterization of his starting point and purpose]." (WM 105) Hippolyte-

That from which any attitude takes its direction is be-ing itself—and more than

that, nothing [und weiter nichts].

That which scholarly discussion effects with its disruption is be-ing itself—and

above and beyond that, nothing [und darüber hinaus nichts].

But it is remarkable that just when scientific man makes sure of what is most his

own, he speaks of something else. Only be-ing is supposed to be studied, and

besides that—nothing; only be-ing, and more than that—nothing; solely be-ing,

and beyond that—nothing.

How do things stand with this no-thing [Nichts]?94 Is it an accident that we

speak quite automatically in this way? Is it then only a manner of speaking—

and nothing more?

Adolphe Taine (1828-1893), philosopher and "psychologist," was one of the

leading lights of positivism in France and an influence, for example, on Jean

Piaget's genetic epistemology and, indirectly, on contemporary cognitive

psychology.

94 I have translated 'das Nichts' as no-thing (hyphenated) to reflect

Heidegger's point that 'das Nichts' is the absence of any effective actuality (be-

ing) of any kind whatsoever. No thing of any sort can be detected. This

contrasts with 'das Seiende' (be-ing) in all its various modes.

Here begins a proliferation of terms used by Heidegger in his discussion of

no-thing. Some are in common use in German, some have technical

resonances in the literature of philosophy, and some are Heidegger's neologisms

(marked with an *). Occasionally, an English neologism (marked **) has been

required. The terms and their place of first appearance in the text are as follows:

the pronoun 'nichts' [nothing, nothing (at all)] (105) and its related noun *'das

Nichts' [no-thing] (105); the noun *'das Nicht' [the not] (108); the verb *'nichten'

[to nihilate] (114), its related present participle and adjective *'nichtend'

[nihilating] (114), and the nouns *'die Nichtung' [nihilation] (114) and 'das

Nichten' [nihilating] (115); the noun *'das Nichthaft' [the not-like] (108), based on

an implied neologism, the adjective *'nichthaft'; the verb 'vernichten' [to

annihilate] (113) and the noun 'die Vernichtung' [annihilation] (113); two

composite nouns 'das Nicht-Seiende' [what is not be-ing; i.e. what is other than

one kind of be-ing or another] (108) and 'das Nichtseiend' [not-be-ing; i.e. what

is not at the time be-ing] (119); the nouns *'das Nichtige' [the null and void] (106)

and 'die Nichtigkeit' [nullity] (119) (from the adjective 'nichtig' [null, invalid,

void]); the verb 'verneinen' [to negate] (109), its past participle 'verneint'

[negated] (109) and related adjective 'verneinend' [negative, negating] (113),

based on the present participle of 'verneinen', and five related nouns: 'die

Verneinung' [negation, in the sense of what is accomplished by placing a

But why do we trouble ourselves about this no-thing? In fact, no-thing is indeed

turned away by science and given up [on] as the null and void [das Nichtige].

But if we give up no-thing in such a way, do we not indeed accept it? But can

we talk about an acceptance if we accept nothing [nichts]? Yet maybe all this

back and forth has already turned into empty verbal wrangling. Science must

then renew its seriousness and assert its soberness in opposition to this, so that it

has only to do with be-ing [um das Seiende geht]. No-thing—what can it be for

science except a horror and a phantasm? If science is right, then one thing is

for certain: science wants to know nothing of no-thing [vom Nichts nichts

wissen]. In the end, this is the scientifically strict comprehension of no-thing. We

know it in wanting to know nothing about the no-thing.95

negative sign in front of a term in symbolic logic or mathematics)] (107), *'das

Verneint' [the negated, the **negatived] (108), *'die Verneintheit' [negativity]

108), *'das Zu-verneinend' [what is do the negating] (116), and 'das Verneinen'

[negating] (117); the noun *'das Verneinbar' [the **negatable], based on a

neologism, the adjective 'verneinbar' [**negatable] (116); the adverb 'nein' ['no']

used as an interjection (118), and its related noun *'das Nein' [the No] (117); and

the adverb 'kein' [no, none, or not any] (112).

95 "Wir wissen es, indem wir von ihm, dem Nichts, nichts wissen wollen." (WM

106)

Science wants to know nothing of no-thing. But even so it is nonetheless certain

that, when it attempts to talk about its own essence [Wesen],*96 it calls on no-

thing for help. It claims for its own what it has rejected. What sort of

conflicted*97 essence unveils itself here?

Reflection on our present life [augenblickliche Existenz] as one determined by

science finds us in the midst of a conflict. In the dispute a question has already

presented itself. The question merely needs to be articulated. How do things

stand with no-thing?

The Elaboration of the Question

The development of the question about no-thing must put us in the position to

be clear about whether it is possible or impossible to answer this question. No-

96 *Fifth edition (1949): "die positive and ausschließlich Haltung zum Seienden

[the positive and exclusive attitude toward be-ing]." (WM 106)

97 *Third edition (1931): "ontologische Differenz [ontological difference]." (WM

106)

*Fifth edition (1949): "Nichts als 'Sein' [no-thing as 'be(ing)]'." (WM 106)

thing has been admitted. With overweening indifference toward it, science

commends it as what "is not [a] given."98

All the same, we will try to speak about no-thing. What is no-thing? Our first

approach to this question already shows us something unusual about it. From

the outset in asking this question we posit no-thing as something that "is" such

and such, as be-ing. But plainly it has in fact been distinguished from just that.*99

The question about no-thing—what and how it, no-thing, is—turns what is being

questioned into its opposite. The question robs itself of its own object.

Accordingly, every answer to this question is impossible from the outset. For it

necessarily starts out in the form: no-thing "is" this or that. Question and answer

alike are themselves just as nonsensical with respect to no-thing.

But such a dismissal doesn't have to come from science. The commonly

referred to ground rule of all thinking (the principle of avoiding contradiction),

98 "Die Wissenschaft gibt es, mit einer überlegenen Gleichgültigkeit gegen es,

preis als das, was 'es nicht gibt'." (WM 107)

99 *Fifth edition (1949): "der Unterschied, die Differenz [the distinction, the

difference]." (WM 107) 'Unterschied' also refers to the difference in a subtraction

problem. 'Differenz' may also mean difference of opinion or discrepancy

(implying error).

everyday "logic" puts down [niederschlagen] this question. For thinking, which in

essence is always thinking about something [etwas], would be working against

its own nature in thinking about no-thing.

Because we keep on failing to make no-thing as such into an object

[Gegenstand], we have already come to the end of our question about no-

thing, on the assumption that "logic"*100 is the highest authority on this question,

that the intellect [Verstand] is the means and thinking the way to grasp no-thing

in an original way and to decide about its disclosure [Enthüllung].

But can the rule of "logic" be challenged? Isn't the intellect really lord and

master in this question about no-thing? After all, only with its help can we

determine no-thing at all and formulate it as a problem, even if only as one that

eliminates itself.101 For no-thing is the negation [Verneinung]102 of the generality

100 *First edition (1929): "d.h. Logik im gewöhnlichen Sinne, was man so dafür

nimmt [that is, logic in the usual sense that one uses the term]." (WM 107)

101 "Nur mit seiner Hilfe können wir doch überhaupt nur das Nichts

betstimmen und als ein wenn auch nur sich selbst verzehrendes Problem

ansetzen." (WM 107)

102 This sense of negation is exemplified by what the negative sign does in

mathematics.

[Allheit] of be-ing, simply not be-ing [das schlechthin Nicht-Seiende]. Yet with

that we subsume no-thing under the higher determination of the not-like [das

Nichthaft] and therewith, so it seems, the negated [das Verneint]. But under the

ruling and never challenged doctrine of "logic," negation [Verneinung] is a

specific mental act. How then can we with the question of no-thing, and

indeed with the question about its questionability, hope to bid adieu to the

intellect? Are we that certain about what we presuppose here? Does the not

[das Nicht], negativity [die Verneintheit], and hence negation have about it a

higher determination under which no-thing, as a particular species of the

negated, falls? Is there no-thing only because there is the not, i.e., negation?

Or is it the other way around? Is there negation and the not only because there

is no-thing?103 This has not been decided; indeed not once has the question

been expressly raised. We maintain that no-thing is more original*104 than the

not and negation.

103 "Gibt es das Nichts nur, weil es das Nicht, d.h. die Verneinung gibt? Oder

liegt es umgekehrt? Gibt es die Verneinung und das Nicht nur, weil es das Nichts

gibt?" (WM 108)

104 *Fifth edition (1949): "Ursprungsordnung [(in the) order of origin or

origination]." (WM 108)

If our thesis is correct, then the possibility of negation as a mental act, and

therewith the intellect itself, depends in some way upon no-thing. What hope is

there then to decide about this? Does the seeming absurdity of the question

and answer regarding no-thing rest solely on the blind single-mindedness*105 of

our far-ranging intellect?

However, if we do not allow ourselves to be led astray by the formal impossibility

of the question about no-thing and still confront the question, we must then at

the very least satisfy what is still as the basic requirement of the possible

development of any question. If no-thing is to be questioned in the way

questioning works, then it must itself be given in advance. We must be able to

encounter it.

How do we go after [suchen] no-thing? How do we find no-thing? In order to

find something [etwas], must we not already know that it is there [daß es da ist]

at all? Indeed! First and foremost, a person is able to look for something only if

he has already anticipated the actual presence [Vorhandensein] of what is

105 *Fifth edition (1949): "die blinde Eigensinnigkeit: die certitudo des ego

cogito, Subjektivität [blind single-mindedness: the certainty of the I think,

subjectivity]." (WM 108)

being sought [das Gesuchte].106 But what is sought here is no-thing. In the end,

is there [gibt es] seeking without some anticipation, a seeking to which a proper

finding belongs?

Be that as it may, we know no-thing even if only as that which we casually talk

about day in and day out. Without further ado, we can work out a "definition"

of this pale no-thing, which in all the colorlessness of self-evidence so

inconspicuously hangs around our talk:

No-thing is the complete negation of the generality of be-ing. In the end, isn't

this characteristic of no-thing a sign of the only direction from which it can

encounter us?

Generality of be-ing must be given beforehand in order to be made invalid

[verfallen zu können] as such by negation, in which no-thing itself then must

manifest [bekunden] itself.

But even if we ignore the questionability of the relation between negation and

no-thing, how should we as finite essences, make the whole of be-ing in its

106 "Zunächst und zumeist vermag der Mensch nur dann zu suchen, wenn er

has Vorhandensein des Gesuchten vorweggenommen hat." (WM 109)

generality accessible in itself and to ourselves in particular [zumal]?107 If need

be, we can think of the whole of be-ing as an "idea [Idee]," and then negate

what has been thus thought up and "think" of it as negated. In this way we do

reach the formal concept of a "thought up" [eingebildeten] no-thing, but never

no-thing itself.108 But no-thing is nothing,109 and no difference can prevail

between the thought up no-thing and "real [eigentlich]" no-thing, unless no-

thing represents something other than the complete absence of difference

[Unterschiedslösigkeit].110 But "real" no-thing itself, isn't it once again that

concealed and absurd concept of an actual no-thing [eines seienden

Nichts]?111 For one last time now the objections of our intellect would call a halt

to our search, the legitimacy of which can be demonstrated only through a

fundamental experience [Grunderfahrung] of no-thing.

107 'Zumal' also means "at the same time."

108 The "thought up" is in one sense the imaginary. The point is, we can never

imagine away everything.

109 "Aber das Nichts ist nichts . . .." (WM 109)

110 'Unterschiedslösigkeit' also means indifference, the condition of having

lost all capacity for making (a) difference or for making differentiations.

111 Here Heidegger is pointing to the patent [seienden] latency [Nichts] of

anything whatsoever.

As surely as we never get a sure grasp of the generality of be-ing in itself, just as

surely do we all the same find ourselves somehow placed in the midst of the

generality of bare [enthüllt] be-ing. In the end, there continues to be [besteht]

an essential difference between getting a grasp of the whole of be-ing in itself

and finding oneself in the midst of be-ing as a whole [des Seienden im

Ganzen].112 The former is impossible in principle. The latter happens all the time

in our existence. Of course, it looks just as though in our everyday comings and

goings we were holding fast to only just this or that [kind of] be-ing, as though

we were lost in this or that realm of be-ing. But no matter how fragmented the

daily round may seem, it always maintains be-ing in the unity of a "whole

[Ganzes]," although only in the shadows.113 Even then and precisely just then,

when we are not especially busy with things114, this "as a whole"115 overcomes

us; for example, in genuine boredom. This is a long way off far off when this or

112 The fundamental sense of "das Seiende im Ganzen" seems to be "be-ing

at all."

113 This is the unity of what is simultaneously minimally ("at all") and maximally

("all") delimited.

114 The sense here is of when we are whiling away the time, fooling around,

tinkering about.

115 This is the "at all" of "being at all."

that book or play, job or leisure activity,116 is boring [langeweilt]. It breaks out

when "it's boring [es einem langweileg ist]." Profound boredom, like a silent fog

insinuating itself in the depths of existence, pulls things, others and oneself into it

altogether with remarkable indifference. Such boredom reveals be-ing as a

whole.

Another possibility of such revelation [Offenbarung] lies concealed in our joy in

the present [Gegenwart]117 [of the] existence, not merely the person, of

someone we love.

Being attuned in such a way that we "are" one way or another, we find

ourselves [befinden] in the midst of be-ing as a whole being attuned by it. Not

only does the situatedness [Befindlichkeit]118 of mood disclose be-ing as a whole

116 Today Heidegger would likely have referred to watching television,

playing video games, or passing the time with other such diversions.

117 'Gegenwart' actually means "the present" (in contrast with "the past" and

"the future") or the grammatical "present tense." This is a telling usage.

Heidegger here points to the coincidence of tense and temporal mode in

existence. He refers in the same way to no-thing (WM 112).

118 Finding ourselves at all means finding ourselves somewhere, in a particular

place, as 0F$_.

in its own way, but this disclosing, far from being a mere incident, is at the same

time the fundamental event [Grundgeschehen] of our being there.

What we call our "feelings [Gefühle]," then, are neither the fleeting concomitant

[Begleiterscheinung]119 of our thinking and willing behavior, nor a mere causal

impetus to such, nor even an actually present condition [vorhandener Zustand]

with which we have to come to terms in some way.

Yet just when moods in such a way bring be-ing as a whole before us, they hide

from us the no-thing we are looking for. We are then even less of the opinion

that the negation of be-ing as a whole revealed in mood puts no-thing before

us. Accordingly, that sort of thing could happen to begin with [ursprünglich]120

only in a mood that reveals no-thing in the most proper sense of disclosing it.

Does such being attuned in which no-thing itself is brought before us happen in

human existence [im Dasein des Menschen]?

119 'Begleiterscheinung' may also mean "side-effect."

120 'Ursprünglich' also means originatively, in a way that occasions or

originates the event in question.

This event is possible and happens, though only rarely and only for an instant, in

the fundamental mood of dread [Angst]. In this sense, dread does not refer to

the regularly occurring anxiety [Ängstlichkeit] that has its source in the

fearfulness [Furchtsamkeit] that so easily appears in us. Dread is fundamentally

different from fear [Furcht]. We are afraid of this or that determinate [kind of]

be-ing which threatens us in this or that regard. Fear of . . . is also in every case

being afraid of something determinate [etwas Bestimmtes]. Since fear has

about it the limitation of an "of what" and "about what," the frightening and

frightful become bound by that in which one finds himself. In striving to save

himself from it, from this determinate [something], one becomes unsure of

himself with regard to everything else, that is, "in a panic" about everything.

Dread does not give rise to such confusion. On the contrary, an odd calm

pervades it. Dread is indeed always dread of . . ., but not of this or that. Dread

of . . . is always dread about . . ., but not about this or that. The indeterminacy of

and about what we are in dread is not some sort of failure of determinacy, but

rather the essential impossibility of determinacy. This is illustrated by the following

familiar explanation.

In dread, as we say, "something is uncanny [ist es einem unheimlich]." What do

we mean by "something" and "is"? We cannot say what the uncanny something

is about. There is something like this about the "as a whole [im Ganzen]"121: all

things [Dinge] and we ourselves sink into indifference.*122 Not in the sense of

merely disappearing, but rather, in its very moving away [Wegrücken], it turns to

us. This moving away of be-ing as a whole that closes in on [umdrängt] us in

dread pressures [bedrängt] us.123 There's nothing to get a hold on.124 All that

remains and comes over us in the slipping away of be-ing is this "no [kein]."

Dread reveals no-thing.

121 "Im Ganzen ist einem so." (WM 111) Variant: There is also something of this

about the "at all" (as in "be-ing at all").

122 *Fifth edition (1949): "das Seiende spricht nicht mehr an [be-ing no longer

appeals to this]."

123 In the following lines, Heidegger plays off the verbs 'bedrängen' (to

pressure, in the sense of forcing someone's hand), 'umdrängen' (to close in on

the way a storm approaches), and 'andrängen' (to play against, the way actors

"play off" one another on stage).

124 "Es bleibt kein Halt." (WM 112) Variant: There's no getting a hold on

anything.

We are "suspended [schweben]" in dread.125 More clearly, dread leaves us

hanging because it brings on the slipping away of be-ing. So it is that we actual

human beings [seienden Menschen]*126 slip away [mitentgleiten] from ourselves

in the midst of be-ing. For at bottom this is not uncanny to you or me, but rather

"it" is like that. In the shuddering [Durchschütterung] of this suspense

[Schweben], where one can hold on to nothing [nichts], only really being there

[das reine Da-sein] remains.*127

125 Variant: We are "at sea" in dread.

126 The play is on the convertibility of the expressions "human being" and "be-

ing human," in which be-ing means effective actuality.

*Fifth edition (1949): "aber nicht der Mensch als Mensch 'des' Da-sein [but

not man a man 'in' existence]." (WM 112) Heidegger is not speaking of the

"human (being)" (man or woman) understood as somehow the result (therefore,

a "finished" being) of being there at all [Da-sein]. The additional play here is on

'Dasein' [existence], 'Da-sein' [(the emphatic state of) being there], and the verb

'da-sein' [to be there].

127 All that remains is pure, unalloyed being there. Variant: Here, in the

shuddering of such suspense, where there is no thing of any kind to hold on to,

there remains only / nothing other than pure being there.

Dread strikes us dumb.128 Because be-ing as a whole slips away and

straightaway no-thing rushes in, every saying "Is" [jedes "Ist"-Sagen] about it is

silent in the face of it. That in the uncanniness of dread we even often attempt

to break the empty stillness with random chatter is only proof of [the] present

[Gegenwart] [of] no-thing. That dread discloses no-thing is then immediately

confirmed when dread has eased off. In light of what we had just seen while it

was still fresh in our memory, we are forced to say that that about and of which

we were in dread was "really [eigentlich]" nothing at all [nichts]. Indeed, no-

thing itself, as such, was there.*129

*Fifth edition (1949): "das Da-sein 'im' Mensch [the being there 'of' man]."

The point is that existence belongs only to human beings. See the Introduction

to the address.

128 "Die Angst verschlägt uns das Wort." (WM 112) Variant: Dread leaves us

speechless (with nothing to say, without words to express ourselves).

129 "In der Tat: das Nichts selbst -- als solche -- war da." (WM 112)

*Fifth edition (1949): "heißt: enthüllte sich; Entbergung und Stimmung [that

is to say, discloses itself; opening up and mood]." 'Entbergung' is a neologism

with allusions to confessing, letting one's real "feelings" show through, opening

up, letting go.

In the fundamental mood of dread we have reached the event of existence in

which no-thing is made manifest and in which it must be questioned.130

How do things stand with no-thing?

The Answer to the Question

We have already initially given what, for our purposes, is the only essential

answer to our question, if we take care that the question about no-thing has

actually been posed. For this demands that we carry out the conversion of

man*131 into his being there [des Menschen in sein Da-sein], which every

instance of dread occasions in us, in order to apprehend no-thing, which is

130 In dread, we have caught up with existence and see it as it first comes to

pass.

131 *Fifth edition (1949): "als Subjekt! Da-sein aber schon denkend heir

vorerfahren, nur deshalb die Frage "Was ist Metaphysik?" hier fragbar geworden

[as subject! Only by thinking of being there as already having been

experienced beforehand has the question "What Is Metaphysics?" become

questionable]." (WM 113)

obvious in it*132 as it manifests itself. At the same time the demand finally comes

to ward off characterizations of no-thing that have not arisen from what is being

claimed here.

No-thing discloses itself in dread, but not as [a kind of] be-ing. Just as little is it

given as an object. Dread is not an apprehension of no-thing.133 Nevertheless,

no-thing is made manifest by and in it, although, once again, not as if no-thing

appeared [zeigte sich] separate "from [neben]" be-ing as a whole, which we

found happening in uncanniness.*134 Rather, we have said that it happens no-

thing is at one with [in eins mit] be-ing as a whole.135 What does this "at one

with" mean?*136

In dread, be-ing as a whole becomes untenable. In what sense does this

happen? After all, be-ing is not annihilated [vernichtet] so that no-thing is left

132 *Fifth edition (1949): "Entbergung [opening up]." (WM 113)

133 "Die Angst ist kein Erfassen des Nichts." (WM 113)

134 Fifth edition (1949): "Unheimlichkeit und Unverborgenheit [uncanniness

and emergence]." (WM 113)

135 " . . . das Nichts begenet in der Angst in eins mit dem Seienden im

Ganzen." (WM 113)

136 *Fifth edition (1949): "der Unterschied [the difference]."

over. How could it be otherwise, when dread finds itself completely powerless in

the face of be-ing as a whole! Moreover, no-thing manifests itself specifically

with and in be-ing as something that is slipping away as a whole [im Ganzen].

No annihilation [Vernichtung] of all of [ganzen] be-ing comes about in dread,

though just as little do we carry out a negation of be-ing as a whole [im Ganzen]

in order to reach no-thing in the first place. Apart from the fact that the express

making of such a negative statement is foreign to dread, we have always come

too late with the very negation that is supposed to give us no-thing. No-thing

comes to pass long before that.137 As we have said, it happens "at one with"

be-ing as a whole that is slipping away.

In dread there is found a giving way to . . ., which is admittedly not so much a

fleeing as a spellbound calm.138 This [falling] back before [Zurück vor . . .] takes

its point of departure in no-thing. It is not a pulling in on itself, but rather

137 "Das Nichts begegnet vordem schon." (WM 114)

138 "In der Angst liegt ein Zurückweichen vor . . ., das freilich kein Fliehen mehr

ist, sondern eine gebannte Ruhe." (WM 114) Variant: This falling back in the face

of / retreating from what we find in dread is admittedly not a fleeing but rather a

spellbound calm.

essentially a turning away.139 The turning away, however, is as such an

expelling140 of be-ing as a whole that lets it slip out of one's grasp. The whole

rejecting expulsion*141 of be-ing as a whole that is slipping away, which is the

way dread closes in on existence, is the essence of no-thing: nihilation [die

Nichtung]. Neither is it an annihilation of be-ing nor does it come from

[entspringt] negation. Nor can nihilation be accounted for by annihilation or

negation. No-thing nihilates of its own.*142

139 Two senses of 'abweisen' are at work here: turning away from (actively

rejecting) and turning down (refusing, as in turning down a job offer).

140 This may also be construed as a referring (back [zurück]) to be-ing as a

whole, based on another sense of 'Verweisen' (referring).

141 *Fifth edition (1949): "ab-weisen: das Seiende für sich; ver-weisen: in das

Sein des Seienden [to turn away or turn down: be-ing in and of itself; to expel or

refer back: within the be[ing] of be-ing]."

142 "Das Nichts selbst nichtet." (WM 114)

*Fifth edition (1949): "als Nichten west, währt, gewährt das Nichts [in the

way nihilating makes be, sustains, gives (up) no-thing]." (WM 114)

Nihilating is not an occurrence of some sort143, but rather as the refusing

expelling of be-ing as a whole that is slipping by, it reveals be-ing in its full,

previously obscured foreignness as the "other than" per se with regard to no-

thing.

In the clear night of dread's no-thing, the original openness of be-ing as such

arises [ersteht] for the first time in such a way that it is [a kind of] be-ing and not

no-thing. In adding "and not no-thing" we have not, however, added a

clarification, but rather the predecessive potential [vorgängige

Ermöglichung]*144 of the openness of be-ing in general. The essence of the

143 Nihilating does not begin at some point. The sense seems to be that

nihilating only goes on happening. We never see its inception. No-thing has

always already gotten underway.

144 *Fifth edition (1949): "d.h. Sein [that is, be[ing]]." (WM 114) Be[ing]] is the

predecessive potential for be-ing at all or as a whole. In the predecessor, we

find that event which Heidegger calls 'das Ereignis', the event that ushers in be-

ing at all, the ground zero that marks a world for each existence. We, who exist,

are thus the place holders (ciphers) of be[ing].

originally nihilating no-thing is found in this: it brings about being there first of all,

before [vor]*145 any kind of be-ing.

Only on the basis of the original manifestness of no-thing can the existence of

human beings reach and "get into" be-ing [auf Seiendes zugehen und

eingehen]. Yet, inasmuch as existence of essence relates itself to be-ing, which

it is not and which it itself is, it comes forth as such existence from that very no-

thing which has already been revealed.

Being there means*146 beholdenness to no-thing.147

145 Variant: Originally nihilating no-thing brings forward being there in

advance of / face to face with any such be-ing.

*Fifth edition (1949): "eigens vor Sein des Seienden, vor den Unterschied [in

particular, before (the) be(ing) of be-ing, before the difference]." (WM 114)

146 *First edition (1929): "1.) u.a. nicht nur, 2.) daraus nicht folgern: also ist alles

Nichts, sondern umgekehrt: Übernehmen und Vernehmung des Seienden, Sein

und Endlichkeit [(1) but it does not mean only this; (2) thus it does not follow that

all is no-thing, but rather the other way around: the taking over and questioning

of be-ing, be[ing] and finitude]." (WM 115)

147 "Da-sein heißt: Hineingehaltenheit in das Nichts." (WM 114) Variant:

Existence means involvement in no-thing.

Beholden to*148 no-thing, existence is already beyond be-ing as a whole. We

call this being above and beyond be-ing transcendence. If existence were not

of essence fundamentally transcending, which now means, were it not already

beholden to no-thing, then it could not relate*149 itself to be-ing and so not

even to itself.

Without [the] original manifestness of no-thing, no selfhood and no freedom.*150

With that the answer to the question about no-thing is found. No-thing is neither

an object nor, above all, be-ing. No-thing comes neither in and of itself nor

148 *Fifth edition (1949): "wer hält ursprünglich [who originally holds]?" (WM

115)

149 *Fifth edition (1949): "d.h. Nichts und Sein das Selbe [that means: no-thing

and be[ing] the same]." (WM 115) The paratactic structure is familiar from

Heidegger's late translations; for example, of the fragments of Parmenides in

Was heißt Denken?.

150 *Fifth edition (1949): "Freiheit und Wahrheit im Vortrag 'Vom Wesen der

Wahrheit' [freedom and truth in the essay 'On the Essence of Truth]." (WM 115)

The essay, first given in 1930, was not published until 1943. Variant: No no-thing,

no selfhood and no freedom.

along with be-ing, upon which it depends all the same. No-thing is the potential

for a manifestness of be-ing as some such thing for [für]*151 human existence.

No-thing does not primarily provide the antithesis of be-ing, but is originally of the

very essence.*152 The nihilation of no-thing happens in the be[ing]153 of be-ing.

But now, finally, we must put into words a reservation we have so far withheld. If

existence only relates itself to be-ing by being aimed in advance at no-thing in

order to be able to exist [existieren], and if no-thing originally becomes manifest

only in dread, must we not then remain permanently suspended in this dread in

order to be able to exist at all? Yet have we ourselves not already admitted

that this original dread is rare? But above all, all of us exist and relate ourselves

to be-ing which we ourselves are not and which we ourselves are—without such

dread. Is this not an arbitrary finding and the no-thing attributed to it an

exaggeration?

151 *Fifth edition (1949): "nicht 'durch' [not 'in']." (WM 115)

152 *Fifth edition (1949): "Wesen: verbal; Wesen des Seins [essence: linguistic;

essence of be[ing]]." (WM 115) Variant: . . . no-thing is the very essence of

be[ing].

153 This is the first appearance of the term 'das Sein' in the lecture.

Now what does it mean that this original dread happens only in rare instances?

Nothing other than this: no-thing is at first and for the most part disguised in its

originality. But how? By our getting lost in be-ing in certain ways. The more we

turn to be-ing in our dealings, the less we let be-ing as such slip away, the more

we turn away from no-thing. Thus all the more certainly are we forced into the

public superficialities of existence.

And yet this permanent albeit ambiguous aversion to no-thing is within certain

limits in accord with its inherent meaning. No-thing in its nihilating refers us right

to be-ing.*154 No-thing nihilates without fail [unausgesetzt]155, but without our

really knowing about this event [Geschehen] in the sense of the kind of knowing

that helps us get by on a day to day basis.

What gives more urgent evidence of the permanent and extensive, though

disguised, manifestness of no-thing in our existence than negation? This,

however, does not at all draw the not out of itself in order as to be a medium of

differentiation and opposition in order, as it were, to force itself into the midst of

what is given. Moreover, how should negation draw the not out of itself, if it can

154 Fifth edition (1949): "weil in das Sein des Seienden [because in the be[ing]

of be-ing]." (WM 116)

155 Using 'continually' here would more clearly preserve the temporality of the

nihilating of no-thing.

negate only when something negatable [ein Verneinbares] is given.156 But how

could something negatable and what is do the negating [das Zu-verneinendes]

be sighted as something not-like [ein Nichthaftes], were it not that all thinking as

such already looks ahead to the not?157 But the not can become manifest only

if its origin [Ursprung], the nihilating of no-thing in general and with it no-thing

itself, is brought out of seclusion. The not does not arise in negation, but rather

negation bases itself on the not*158, which comes of [entspringt] the nihilating of

no-thing. But negation is also only one means of nihilating, that is to say, only

one form which the behavior based ahead of time on the nihilating of no-thing

takes.

In this way the above thesis has been demonstrated in its basic features: no-

thing is the origin of negation, not the other way around. If the power of the

156 The imagery and language here are suggestive of mathematics: givens,

the negative sign [die Verneinung].

157 "Wie soll aber ein Verneinbares und Zu-verneinendes als ein Nichthaftes

erblickt werden können, es sei denn so, daß alles Denken als solches auf das

Nicht schon vorblick?" (WM 116)

158 *First edition (1929): "gleichwohl hier -- wie sonst Aussage -- die Verneinung

zu nachträglich und äußerlich gefaßt [even here negation in the usual way of

expressing it is too extraneous and superficial]." (WM 117)

intellect in the realm of the question of no-thing and of be[ing] is thus overcome,

then the fate of the dominance of "logic"*159 within philosophy is decided at the

same time. The idea of "logic" itself dissolves in the rush of an original question.

But now no matter how often or in how many ways negation permeates all

thinking, whether or not explicitly, it can scarcely by itself be the fully valid

means of the manifestness of no-thing that belongs essentially to existence. For

negation cannot be termed either the sole or even the leading nihilating

behavior in which existence is shaken up by the nihilating of no-thing. More

profound even than the mere propriety of rational negation is the harshness of

opposition and the shrillness of loathing. The pain of failure or the mercilessness

of prohibition are more responsible. The harshness of deprivation is more

oppressive.

These possibilities of nihilating behavior, powers by which existence supports

even if it does not master its givenness [Geworfenheit]160, are not means of

159 *First edition (1929): "'Logik', d.h. die überlieferte Auslegung des Denkens

['logic', that is, (as) the traditional explanation of thinking]." (WM 117)

160 'Geworfenheit' refers to the basic condition of existence that it is given

historically in such and such a way. Where and when we are born are

fundamental to how our projects in life will be formulated and unfold. This

mere negating [Verneinens]. But that does not bar them from speaking out in

the no [im Nein] and in negation. Indeed, the emptiness and extent of negation

betray themselves in these for the first time. That existence is pervaded by

nihilating behavior attests to the permanent and indeed obscured manifestness

of no-thing that dread originally discloses. But this means original dread is

suppressed for the most part in existence. Dread is there. It's only napping. Its

breath permanently trembles in existence, only slightly in the apprehensive, and

inaudibly in the "Uh húh!" and "Húh uh!" of those who are busy; best of all in the

reserved, surest of all at the heart of existence that is daring. But this happens

only in those for whom it expends itself in order to preserve the ultimate

greatness [Größe] of existence.

endowment both allows and forces upon us a certain range of possibilities.

Heidegger's usage implies our being fated to the particular conditions of our

existence. In English we say some has been "had" when he has been deceived,

taken in, made a fool of. There is something of this in 'Geworfenheit', too, but

also a sense of mission and endowment that having been had in the human

way brings into the picture. We might even try 'hadhood' here for

'Geworfenheit', since it is a German neologism. 'Geworfenheit' also refers to the

status of what has to be, the givens, for example, of a problem in logic or

mathematics. One sense of 'werfen', the root of term, is "having a baby." Each

of us has also been "had" in this sense.

For the daring, dread is not an opponent [Gegenstellung] of joy or even of the

comfortable pleasures of quiet busyness. It shares a secret bond with the

cheerfulness and mildness of creative yearning.

Original dread can awaken in existence at any moment. It does not need

wakening [Weckung] by an unaccustomed eventuality for that. The depth of its

sway corresponds to the scarcity of its possible occasioning.161 It is permanently

on the verge [zum Spring] and yet only seldom comes into play to hold us in

suspense.162

The beholdenness of existence to no-thing on the basis of hidden dread makes

man the placeholder of no-thing. We are so finite that we are not even able to

bring ourselves face to face with no-thing by our own will and resolve. So

deeply is mortality buried in our existence that it denies our freedom its very own

and deepest finiteness.

161 "Der Tiefe ihres Waltens entspricht das Geringfügige ihrer möglichen

Veranlassung." (WM 118) Variant: Just because its possible occasions are rare,

the sway of dread is very great when it does occur.

162 Heidegger is playing on the meaning of 'umreißen' in this sentence. The

sense is that one is immobilized, hemmed in by dread.

The beholdenness of existence to no-thing on the basis of hidden dread is the

surmounting [Übersteigen] of be-ing as a whole, transcendence.

Our question about no-thing should lead us to metaphysics itself. The term

'metaphysics' stems from the Greek __*n *n .,&__6. This remarkable phrase was

later interpreted to be the indication of a question that goes "beyond [über],"

__*n (trans) be-ing as such.

Metaphysics is an asking "after [über]" be-ing, in order to get at it as it is and as a

whole for our comprehension.

Such a going "after" be-ing as be-ing as a whole happens in the question about

no-thing. In this way it is shown to be a "metaphysical" question. At the outset,

we gave questions of this kind a twofold character: every metaphysical question

comprehends the whole of metaphysics all at once. In every metaphysical

question, questioning existence is thereupon also taken up by the question.163

To what extent does the question about no-thing take on and encompass the

whole of metaphysics?

163 Variant: Existence, which questions, i.e. the human being, brought up for

questioning / put in question when any metaphysical question is brought up.

From of old metaphysics has spoken of itself with the admittedly ambiguous

proposition ex nihilo nihil fit, no-thing comes from no-thing [aus Nichts wird

Nichts]. Even though no-thing itself never becomes a problem, in the

explication of the proposition the leading fundamental view of be-ing based on

the prevailing view [Hinblick] of no-thing is nevertheless made explicit. Ancient

metaphysics takes no-thing to mean not-be-ing [das Nicht-seienden], that is,

unformed matter which cannot turn itself into something formlike and

accordingly give the appearance [Aussehen] (_® () of having be-ing. Be-ing is

self-forming shape which appears as such as a picture (view [of]) [im Bilde

(Anblick)]. The origin, law and limits of this view of be[ing] are as little discussed

as no-thing itself. Christian dogmatics denies the truth of the proposition ex nihilo

nihil fit and as a result gives it another meaning in the sense of the complete

absence [Abwesenheit] of non-divine [außergöttlichen] be-ing: ex nihilo fit—ens

creatum [created thing].164 Here no-thing is the antithesis of authentic

[eigentlich] be-ing, of the summum ens [the highest thing, the thing most

beyond us], of God as ens increatum [the uncreated thing]. Here again the

explanation of no-thing intimates [zeigt an] a fundamental view of be-ing. The

metaphysical discussion of be-ing remains on the same level as the question

about no-thing. Both questions, about be[ing] and no-thing, remain unasked as

such. Thus there is never a concern about the difficulty that, if God creates from

no-thing, he certainly has to be able to relate to no-thing. But if God is God, he

164 "From no-thing comes the created thing."

can not know no-thing, if "the absolute" [das "Absolute"] excludes all nullity

[Nichtigkeit] as well.

This simple historical reminder marks [zeigt] no-thing as the antithesis of authentic

be-ing, that is, as its negation [als dessen Verneinung]. But when no-thing

somehow becomes a problem, this opposing relation does not merely

experience some sort of more meaningful determination, but rather awakens for

the first time a authentically metaphysical interrogative disposition toward the

be[ing] of be-ing. No-thing does not remain the indeterminate opposite of be-

ing, but rather discloses itself as belonging to the be[ing] of be-ing.

"Pure be[ing] and pure no-thing is the same." This proposition of Hegel's (Science

of Logic) is correct.165 Be[ing] and no-thing belong together, not because both

of them agree in their indeterminacy and immediacy166, but rather because

be[ing] itself is in essence finite and revealed only in the transcendence of

existence enduring no-thing [in das Nichts hinausgehaltenen Daseins].

165 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Wissenschaft der Logik (1812), translated

by A.V. Miller as Hegel's Science of Logic (New York: Humanities Press), 1976, p.

82 [Volume I, Book One, Section One, Chapter 1]. "Das reine Sein und das reine

Nichts ist also dasselbe."

166 Variant: . . . in their uncertainty or vagueness and unmediatedness.

Because the question about be[ing] as such is also the comprehensive question

of metaphysics, the question about no-thing is shown to be of a kind that

encompasses the whole of metaphysics. However, at the same time, the

question about no-thing seizes upon the whole of metaphysics, insofar as it

forces us to face the problem of the origin of negation, that is, to face what is

fundamentally a decision about the legitimate dominance of "logic"*167 in

metaphysics.

The old proposition ex nihilo nihil fit has another sense, which happens to speak

to the problem of be[ing] and goes like this: ex nihilo omne ens qua ens fit.168

Be-ing as a whole first comes to itself in accordance with its very own possibility,

that is, only in the no-thing of existence.169 If it is metaphysical, to what extent

then has the question about no-thing taken up our questioning existence? We

note that our existence, as currently experienced, is determined essentially by

167 *First edition (1929): "d.h. immer der überlieferten Logik und ihr Logik als

Ursprung der Kategorien [this always means traditional logic and logic as the

origin of the categories]." (WM 120)

168 "Every thing as a thing comes from no-thing."

169 "Im Nichts des Daseins kommt erst das Seiende im Ganzen seiner

eigensten Möglichkeit nach, d.h. in endlicher Weise, zu sich selbst." (WM 120)

science. Determined in this way, if our existence is posed in the question about

no-thing, then it must have become questionable through this question.

Scientific existence acquires its simplicity and severity from being related in a

marvelous way to be-ing itself and only to it. Science would like to dismiss no-

thing with a wave of the hand. But it soon becomes obvious that this very

scientific existence is possible only because it is beholden beforehand to no-

thing. It first understands itself as what it is, then, when it does not abandon no-

thing. The supposed seriousness and superiority of science becomes foolishness

if it does not take no-thing seriously. Only because no-thing is obvious [to it] can

science make be-ing an object of study. Only if science grows out of [existiert

aus]170 metaphysics, can it ever prevail afresh in its essential task, which consists,

not in the accumulation and classification of knowledge, but rather in an always

fresh ongoing disclosure of the whole field of the truth of nature and history.

Only because no-thing is manifest at the heart of existence can the full

strangeness of be-ing come over us. Only if the strangeness of be-ing impresses

us does it waken us and open us up to wonder. Only on the basis of wonder,

that is, the manifestness of no-thing, does the "Why?" come up [entspringt]. Only

170 See Introduction to the lecture (above), written twenty years later, in

which the meaning of 'existieren' is re(de)fined. Only man exists, since [the] no-

thing comes of [his] existing. Man is an original.

because the Why as such is possible can we ask in a determinate way about

and establish [begründen] the basics [Gründen]. Only because we can ask

and establish is the fate our life in the hands of scientists.

The question about no-thing puts us, the questioners, into question. It is a

metaphysical one.

Human existence can relate to be-ing only if it is itself beholden to no-thing.

Going above and beyond be-ing is of the essence of existence.171 This going

beyond, however, is metaphysics itself. That is how metaphysics belongs to "the

nature of man" [zur "Natur des Menschen"].172 It is neither a branch of

academic philosophy nor a realm of scattered notions [Einfälle]. Metaphysics is

the basic event of existence. It is existence itself. Because the truth of

metaphysics dwells in this unfathomable ground, it has about it the ever lurking

possibility of deepest error about what is in closest proximity [to it]. Hence, no

171 "Das Hinausgehen über das Seiende geschieht im Wesen des Daseins."

(WM 121) Variants: Exceeding be-ing is of the essence of existence. The

essence of existence is being more than be-ing.

172 The reference is to Kant. See the Introduction to the lecture where it is

repeated.

strictness of a science attains the seriousness of metaphysics. Philosophy can

never be measured by the yardstick of the idea of science.

Because the question about no-thing that we have gone into was actually

asked of us, we have therefore not brought in metaphysics from the outside.

Nor have we just "changed [our] position." We cannot put ourselves in another

position at all, because inasmuch as we exist, we already stand within it. .B&__

_6$, À .<__, Ü__&*< *_( .__ & .<_ *ê * ∑ t_ $≠( ___ <p (Plato, Phaedrus 279a).173

Insofar as man exists, philosophizing happens in a certain way. Philosophy, as

we call it, is all about getting metaphysics off the ground [das In-Gang-bringen

der Metaphysik] in which it comes into its own and is up to its particular task.*174

Philosophy comes about only through our own life's undergoing a curious

173 "For by nature, my friend, philosophy is in the mind of man." Hackforth's

translation: "For that mind of his, Phaedrus, contains an innate tincture of

philosophy." The Collected Dialogues of Plato, edited by Edith Hamilton and

Huntingdon Cairns (1961) Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 524.

174 *In the first edition of Wegmarken (1967): "zweierlei gesagt: 'Wesen' der

Metaphysik und ihre eigene seinsgeschickliche Geschichte; beide später

genannt in der 'Verwindung' [said two ways: [the] 'essence' of metaphysics and

its own befitting history; both [are] named in 'getting over (metaphysics)']." (WM

122)

engagement [Einsprung] with the fundamental possibilities of existence as a

whole. Decisive for this engagement is, first of all, making room for be-ing as a

whole; next, letting oneself come to no-thing [das Sichloslassen in das Nichts],

that is, becoming free of the idols which everyone has and among [which] we

are in the habit of losing our way; finally, letting this suspense range out into

what it permanently swings round to in the basic question of metaphysics which

no-thing itself forces on us: Why be-ing, after all, and not rather no-thing?175

175 "Warum ist überhaupt Seiendes und nicht vielmehr Nichts?"

POSTSCRIPT TO "WHAT IS METAPHYSICS? (1949 [1943])176

The question "What is metaphysics?" remains a question. The following postscript

is more an opening preface for those who persist with the question. The

question "What is metaphysics?" inquires beyond metaphysics. It comes of a

thinking that already has gone about getting over metaphysics. It is of the

nature of such transitions that within certain limits they must speak the language

of what they are helping to get over. The particular occasion of the discussion

[in 1929] of the question about the nature of metaphysics must not mislead us to

take the view that this question is raised by the sciences. Modern research is

involved in other means of formulating and establishing be-ing in the basic

features of its truth, according to which all be-ing is marked by the willingness to

will [den Willen zum Willen], which as the "will to power" had begun to be the

prototype of appearing [Erscheinen]. Understood as the fundamental feature

of the be-ingness of be-ing, "will" make be-ing the equivalent of actualization

[Wirklichung] in such a way that the actuality [Wirklichkeit] of actualization is

176 The following note preceded this postscript in the fourth edition (1943) of

the lecture "What Is Metaphysics?," which was the first to include the postscript: "

Metaphysics is a word, no matter how abstract and near to thinking the word

may be, from which everyone more or less flees, as from someone afflicted with

the plague." Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel, Werke, Band XVII, p. 400."

authorized by the unconditional feasibility [Machbarkeit] of constant reification.

Modern science neither serves the purpose first given to it nor searches for some

"truth in itself." As a means of the calculating [rechnenden] reification of be-ing,

it is the self-positing condition of the willingness to will by means of which it

safeguards the sovereignty of its nature. But because all reification of be-ing

arises by way of bringing into be-ing and safeguarding be-ing, and acquires the

possibilities of its progress from this, reification stays with be-ing and no doubt

takes this for be[ing]. All relating to be-ing thus attests to a knowledge of

be[ing], but at the same time to the inability to stand by [stehen aus] the law

[Gesetz]*177 of the truth of this knowledge. Such truth is a truth beyond be-ing.

Metaphysics is the history of this truth. It says what be-ing is, while at the same

time it makes the be-ingness of be-ing into a concept. Metaphysics thinks

be[ing] as the be-ingness of be-ing, but to its way of thinking without being able

to think about the truth of be-[ing]. At all times, metaphysics moves in the

sphere of truth, which metaphysically speaking continues to be its unknowingly

unproven grounds [unbekannte unbegründete Grund]. However, given not

only that be-ing stems from be[ing], but also and more originally still, that be[ing]

itself is buried deep within its truth and the truth of be[ing] comes to be as the

177 Variant: . . . the inability to stand by what is given by the truth of this

knowledge.

*Fifth edition (1949): "Ge-setz; Ereignis [(the) giv-en (com-mand);

eventuality]." (NWM 304)

be[ing] of truth, then the question necessarily is, What is at the bottom of

metaphysics? This question must be thought metaphysically and at the same

time on the grounds of metaphysics, that is, no longer metaphysically thought.

Such a question is, in an essential sense, ambiguous.

Every attempt to follow the train of thought of the lecture will for this reason

come up against obstacles. That's good. In that way, the question becomes

more genuine. Every proper question is already the bridge to its answer.

Essential answers are always but the last step of the question. But that [step]

cannot be taken without a long series of first and subsequent steps. An essential

answer is supported by the urgency of the question. An essential answer is only

the beginning of [our] response. In this the question first comes to.178 Therefore,

a genuine question is not done away with by finding the answer to it.

Obstacles to following the argument of the lecture are of two kinds. One sort

arises from a riddle that is concealed in the sphere of what is thought there. The

other comes of the inability, also often the unwillingness, to think. In the sphere

178 The question "What is metaphysics?" thus "comes to life" in a fresh way or

even for the first time. It is roused from the slumber of ordinary treatments of it. It

also "comes to" in becoming reoriented as a question with respect to us, the

questioners: the question thus comes to have a new face. Like a ship, the

question changes direction, "comes to" or "comes about."

of thoughtful inquiry, even passing considerations [Bedenken] can help out now

and again, particularly those that are very carefully considered. Grossly

mistaken views may also bear fruit, even when aimed as blind attacks. Only

reflection [Nachdenken] can restore to everything the composure

[Gelassenheit] of patient contemplation.

The thoughts and mistaken views about the lecture can be grouped around

three main assertions:

1. The lecture makes no-thing a general object of metaphysics. But since no-

thing is the null and void pure and simple, such thinking leads to the view that

everything is nothing [alles sei nichts], so that it is not worthwhile either to live or

die. Such a "philosophy of no-thing" is full-blown "nihilism."

2. The lecture elevates an occasional (and depressing mood at that) to being

the only fundamental mood. But since dread is the psychological condition of

"those who have anxiety" and of being a coward, such thinking is denied the

high-spirited mien of courage. Such a "philosophy of dread" cripples any

willingness [Willen] to act.

3. The lecture comes out against "logic." But since the intellect contains

standards of figuring (out) [Rechnen] and organizing, such thinking consigns

judgements about truth to a chance mood. Such a "philosophy of mere

feelings" endangers "exact" thinking and the certainty of action.

A proper attitude toward these assertions comes of renewed deliberation

[Durchdenken] about the lecture. It must be shown whether no-thing accords

with [stimmt] dread in its essence, expends itself in the empty negation of all be-

ing, or whether what is never and in no way be-ing, unveils itself as what

distinguishes itself from all be-ing, which we call be[ing]. No matter where or to

what extent all research scrutinizes [absuchen] be-ing, nowhere does is find

be[ing]. It always hits upon nothing but be-ing because for the purposes of its

account, it insists beforehand on be-ing. Be[ing], however, has nothing of the

character of be-ing to give to be-ing. Be[ing] does not let itself be objectively

thought of or established the same as be-ing does. This absolutely other*179 to

all be-ing is the not be-ing. But this no-thing*180 comes to pass as be[ing]. We

call off thinking too hastily if we give the mere null and void as an easier

explanation of no-thing and equate it with the unreal [Wesenlosen]. Instead of

such eagerness to give in to empty astuteness and abandon the puzzling

ambiguity of no-thing, we must arm ourselves in single-minded preparation for

179 *Fourth Edition (1943): "Auch dies noch metaphysisch vom Seienden her

gesagt [but this still speaks about be-ing metaphysically]." (NWM 306)

180 *Fourth Edition (1943): "vom Seienden [of be-ing]." (NWM 306)

experiencing the vastness of that in no-thing which gives warrant [die

Gewähr]*181 to any sort of be-ing. That is be[ing] itself. Without be[ing], whose

unfathomable but as yet undisplayed nature sends us no-thing in essential

dread, all be-ing would remain in be[ing]lessness [Seinlosigkeit]. But this, too, as

the abandonment of and by be[ing], is not in turn a void [nichtig] no-thing,

provided that something else belongs to the truth of be[ing] which is

never†182,*183 present as*184 be[ing]*185 without be-ing, that nowhere†186 is be-

ing without be[ing].

181 *Fifth edition (1949): "das Gewährende [the granting]." (NWM 306)

182 †In the fourth edition (1943), we read instead of 'nie': "wohl [probably, no

doubt]." Notes containing the original (1943) version of postscript are preceded

by (†).

183 *Fourth edition (1943): "In der Wahrheit des Seins west das Seyn qua

Wesen der Differenz; dieses Seyn qua ist vor der Differenz das Ereignis und

deshalb ohne Seiendes [Bey[ing] comes to be in the truth of be[ing] as the [the]

essence of difference; this bey[ing] as [] is the eventuality before the difference

and therefore without be-ing]." (NWM 306) Heidegger's crossing out of the word

'be[ing]' in known from essay Zur Seinsfrage [On the Question of Being] (1955)

New York: Twayne, 1958. The silence of the grammatical "voice" (Aktionsart or

genus verbi) of be[ing] is indicated by the crossing out of the word, which

becomes an unspoken word. Is this Heidegger's attempt to find a middle voice

in German?

*Fifth edition (1949): "Vordeutung aus Seyn qua Ereignis, aber dort (in der

4. Auflage) nicht verständlich [pre-understanding of bey[ing] as eventuality, but

not understandable there (in the fourth edition)]." (NWM 306) Just as in German

'Seyn' is an antiquated spelling of 'Sein,' in English 'beying' is an antiquated

spelling of 'being'. In pointing to the near antiquity of the spelling of 'Sein', he

shows how pliable language is. It is readily compliant with the need for giving

verbal expression to thought. Hölderlin, of course, still spelled the word 'Seyn'.

184 *Fifth edition (1949): "Wesen von Sein: Seyn, Unterschied; 'Wesen' von Sein

mehrdeutig: 1. Ereignis, nicht durch Seiendes bewirkt, Ereignis—Gewährende; 2.

Seiendheit—Washeit: während, dauernd, t_< [essence of be[ing]: bey[ing],

distinction; 'coming to pass' of be[ing] [is] ambiguous: 1. eventuality, not

effected by be-ing, eventuality—granting; 2. be-ingness—whatness; granting,

lasting (going on), (for)ever]." (NWM 306) Be[ing] brings about be-ing or makes

be-ing comes to pass without itself coming to pass or bringing itself about.

185 *Fifth edition (1949): "im Sinne von Seyn [in the sense of bey[ing]." (NWM

306)

186 †In the fourth edition (1943), we read instead of 'niemals': "niemals aber

[though nowhere]." (NWM 306)

An experience of be[ing] as what is other than all be-ing is a gift of dread,

provided that we do not avoid the silent*187 voice that attunes us to the terror of

the abyss. In reference to this essential dread, admittedly, if we wilfully abandon

the train of thought of the lecture, we absolve dread from having any voice

[Stimme] in the determinate mood related to no-thing; we are then left with

dread as an isolated "feeling," one among others in that familiar assortment of

psychologically observed mental states that we can distinguish and analyze.

Making the easy distinction [Unterschied] between "above" and "below" our

theme allows us to allocate the "moods" to the class of those that are uplifting or

of those that are debasing. The avid hunting for "types" and "countertypes" of

"feelings," for the bounty of varieties and subspecies of these "types," is never

over. Therefore such anthropological probing [Beforschen] of man always

remains beyond any possibility of following the train of thought of the lecture,

since beyond attentiveness to the voice of be[ing], it goes into the attuning

[Stimmen] that goes beyond this voice by means of which man by nature [in

seinem Wesen] learns to experience be[ing] in no-thing.

187 *Fifth edition (1949): "'das Sein' (Austrag) als die lautlose Stimme, die

Stimme der Stille ['be[ing]' (deliverance) as the inaudible voice, the voice of

silence]." (NWM 306) The sense is that something issues forth, is brought to term

(images of parturition are unmistakable here), something is come to terms with.

Readiness for dread is "saying 'Yes'" to the urgency to fulfill the highest claim by

which man's essence is affected. Called by the voice of be[ing], only man in

the midst of all be-ing experiences the wonder of all wonders: that be-ing is.188

Therefore what in its essence is called to the truth of be[ing] is always

determined in an essential way along with it.189 Ready courage for essential

dread guarantees the mysterious possibility of the experience of be[ing]. For

close to essential dread, as the terror of the unfathomable, dwells reticence. It

sheds light on and looks after every quarter of man's nature in which he is at

home with what is lasting.

On the other hand, "anxiety" about dread can be an aberration, so that it

misjudges the simple relationships [Bezüge] that are of the essence of dread.

What would all courage avail, if it did not find its permanent bearings in the

experience of essential dread? To the degree that we disparage essential

188 Variant: Man experiences that there is be-ing, not no-thing. This becomes

the basis for consciousness, which is after the fact of having come to know

[bewußt] about be-ing.

189 "Der also in seinem Wesen in die Wahrheit des Seins Gerufene ist daher

stets in einer wesentlichen Weise gestimmt." (NWM 307) Variants: What is called

(for) in the truth of be[ing] is always in tune with it in an essential way. The truth

of be[ing] and what is, in truth, called for are in tune with each other there.

dread and that in it which sheds light on the relation of be[ing] to man, we

degrade the essence of courage. But this makes it possible to endure no-thing

[das Nichts auszustehen].190 In the abyss of terror courage recognizes the

scarcely traversed scope [Raum] of be[ing] in light of which [aus dessen

Lichtung] any [kind of] be-ing first comes back to that in which it is and can be.

The lecture neither pursues a "philosophy of dread" nor seeks to give the false

impression of an "heroic philosophy." It only thinks that which Western thinking

has from the start continued to work out but nonetheless has forgotten as what

is to be thought [das zu Denkende]: be[ing]. But be[ing] is not a product of

thinking. To be sure, essential thinking is rather an eventuality of be[ing].

But now of necessity the scarcely articulated question comes up, whether there

is the any law as yet about the truth of this thinking since it only follows the

thinking that "logic" constitutes with its forms and rules. Why is this term placed in

quotation marks in the lecture? In order to suggest that "logic" is only one

explanation [Auslegung] of the nature of thinking and in fact, as the term

suggests, one that is based on an experience of be[ing] already attained by

Greek thought. This suspicion about "logic," which is attested to by the logical

consistency of logistics, comes of knowledge about that thinking which has its

source, not in consideration of the objectivity [Gegenständlichkeit] of be-ing but

of the experience of the truth of be[ing]. The most exact thinking is never the

strictest thinking, if the strictness has its essence elsewhere than in the kind of

190 Or: . . . to stand up to, bear, put up with no-thing.

exertion with which knowledge actually maintains its relationship with what is

essential to be-ing. Exact thinking merely commits itself to figuring (out)

[Rechnen] be-ing and serves that exclusively.

All figuring (out) sees to it that the countable [Zählbar] is worked out in what is

counted up [Gezählten] in order to make use of it in the next accounting

[Zählung].191 Figuring (out) does not allow anything but the countable to come

up. All that counts is what it counts. What is counted up each time safeguards

the progress of the counting [Zählen]. This progressively uses up all of them

[Zahlen] and is itself a continual self-consumption. The working out of the

account [Rechnung] of be-ing counts as an explanation of its be[ing]. In

advance, figuring out makes use of all be-ing as the countable and uses up

what is counted up in the accounting. This consuming use of be-ing gives away

the all-consuming character of figuring [things] out. Only because number is

reproducible ad infinitum, and this indiscriminately, whether in the direction of

191 Heidegger's figure his is one of both arithmetic computation and control.

Everything that is subjected to calculative thinking must be divisible into discrete

discernible units and accountable to the operator of the computer. The

explanations that calculative thinking produce must add up. Every problem has

a solution. Everything must be submitted to analysis, understood, figured out.

The results must be measurable, fixed to standards or measurement and

expressible in statistical terms.

greater or less, can it conceal the all-consuming nature of figuring [things out]

behind its products and lend the appearance of productivity to calculative

[rechnenden] thinking, while in an anticipatory way and not primarily in its later

results, it in fact already makes all be-ing out to be important only in the form of

what is available and consumable. Calculative thinking is entirely under the

compulsion to master everything by means of the logical consistency of its

procedures. It cannot tell that everything calculable [alles Berechenbare] in

figuring, before its being variously worked out as sums and products, is already a

whole whose unity, of course, belongs to what is incalculable [Unberechenbar],

which eludes the clutches of figuring and its uncanniness. However, what has

everywhere and always already closed itself off from any suggestion of

calculation [Berechnung] and is nevertheless at any given moment always

closer to man in its puzzling indecipherability than any instance of be-ing, which

equips it and which it has in mind, [this] can from time to time attune the

essence of man to a kind of thinking whose truth no "logic" can apprehend.

Thinking whose thought does not only not figure out but is determined above all

by what is other than be-ing we call essential thinking.*192 Instead of

accounting for [rechnen] be-ing with be-ing, it expends itself [verschwendet es

192 *Fifth edition (1949): "Rechnen: Herrschaft -- Bestellung; Denken:

Gelassenheit in die Vereignung des Brauchs -- Ent-sagen [figuring out: control --

order; thinking: the composure of acclimation to custom -- re-nouncing]." (NWM

309)

sich] in be[ing] for the sake of the truth of be[ing].193 Such thinking answers to

the demands of be[ing] when man puts his historical nature in the hands of what

is quite simply the only necessity, which does not coerce as it compels but

creates a need that is fulfilled in the freedom of giving something up [Opfer].194

The need is for the truth of be[ing] to come to be aware of [gewahrt wird] what

may happen to man and all be-ing. Relieved of all compulsion [Zwang]

because it arises from the abyss of freedom, giving [something] up is the price of

expending the essence of man on safeguarding the truth of be[ing] for be-ing.

In giving something up a hidden thanks comes to pass [ereignet sich] which

alone pays respect to graciousness [Huld], as what be[ing] itself has conveyed

[übereignet hat] to the essence of man in thinking, in order in harmony [Bezug]

193 "Statt mit dem Seienden auf das Seiende zu rechnen, verschwendet es

sich im Sein für die Wahrheit des Seins." (NWM 309)

194 "Diese Denken antwortet dem Anspruch des Seins, indem der Mensch sein

geschichtliches Wesen dem Einfachen der einzigen Notwendigkeit

überantwortet, die nicht nötigt, indem sie zwingt, sondern die Not schafft, die

sich in der Freiheit des Opfers erfüllt." (NWM 309) Variant: . . . just as man puts his

historical essence in the hands of all that is of the essence . . .. 'Opfer' is, of

course, sacrifice, but the basic meaning of sacrifice is giving up something.

with be[ing] to assume guardianship over be[ing]. The opening thought†195 is

the echo [Widerhall] of the grace of be[ing] in which what is unique sheds light

on itself and lets†196 it come to pass*197 that be-ing is [daß Seiende ist]. This

echo is the human answer to the words [das Wort] of the silent voice of be[ing].

195 †In the fourth edition (1943), we read instead of "Das anfängliche Denken

. . .": "'Das ursprüngliche Danken [Original thanking] . . ." (NWM 310). The note

implies something in the ellipsis; but is it thanks for, thanks to, thanks of? The

sense of 'anfänglich' applied here casts a wide net. It is thinking that sets one on

the right track (steadying, consoling), begins ever anew (in which one is always

a beginner), is innovative (starts something new), is unusual (exceptional, maybe

even "excessive"). All of these attributes apply, of course, to Heidegger's way of

thinking and writing. "The opening thought" sounds like the opening tone(s) of a

piece of music.

196 †In the fourth edition (1943), we read instead of " . . . in der sich das Einzige

lichtet und sich ereignen läßt:": " . . . in der es sich lichtet und das Einzige sich

ereignen läßt [in which it sheds light on itself and lets the unique come to pass]:."

(NWM 310)

197 *Fifth edition (1949): "Ereignis [eventuality]." (NWM 310)

Thinking's answer†198 is the origin [Ursprung] of human words, words which let

language as the enunciation of words [das Wort] be put into words [in die

Wörter] for the first time. Were there not at times [zuzeiten] [such] hidden

thinking†199 at the heart of the nature of historical man [im Wesensgrunde des

geschichtlichen Menschen], he would therefore never be capable of

thanking†200, assuming that in any consideration [Bedenken] and every

expression of thanks [Bedanken]†201 there still has to be thought [Denken] of

what originally thinks the truth of be[ing]. But how else could humanity ever find

its way to original thinking, were it not that the grace of be[ing] grants man, by

way of an outspoken harmony with it, the nobility of poverty in which the

freedom of giving something up hides the riches of its nature. Giving something

up is taking leave of be-ing in order to be on the way to safeguarding the grace

198 †In the fourth edition (1943), we read instead of "Die Antwort des Denkens

. . .": "Die sprachlose Antwort des Dankens im Opfer [the speechless reply of

thanks in sacrifice]. . .." (NWM 310)

199 †In the fourth edition (1943), we read instead of "Denken": "Danken

[thanking]." (NWM 310)

200 †In the fourth edition (1943), we read instead of "Danken": "Denken

[thinking]." (NWM 310)

201 †In the fourth edition (1943), we read instead of "Bedanken": "Andenken

[recalling (memory)]." (NWM 310)

of be[ing]. By being busy and accomplishing things, giving something up can

be prepared for and helped along but never fulfilled by be-ing. Carrying it out

originates in the urgency with which every historical human being [Mensch] acts

(essential thinking is also action [Handeln]), which sustains the existence

attained in its safeguarding the dignity of be[ing]. This urgency is an equanimity

[Gleichmut] that will not let itself fight the hidden readiness to let go of what is of

the essence of every giving something up. Giving something up is inherently

[heimisch] in the nature of the eventuality as which be[ing] has man caught

up*202 in speaking on behalf of the truth. Therefore giving something up doesn't

put up with any calculation [Verrechnung] by means of which it always just

becomes resolved [verrechnet]203 to a profit or loss, whether its aims are to be

set low or high. Such calculating [Verrechnen] disfigures the essence of giving

202 " . . . als welches das Sein den Menschen für die Wahrheit des Seins in den

Anspruch nimmt." (NWM 311) Man is then engrossed in speaking on behalf of

the truth. Here Heidegger plays on 'ansprechen' (to speak to), the colloquial

expression 'in den Anspruch nehmen' (to claim) , and 'ansprechend' (mutually

attracting, in this case be[ing] and man).

*Fifth edition (1949): "er-eignet, braucht [comes to pass, uses]." (NWM 311)

203 Or: balanced, as the books are balanced by an accountant, or

miscalculated.

something up.204 The search [Sucht] for aims befuddles the clarity of dread-

ready reticence about giving up oneself which has something deathless about

it.

Thinking of205 be[ing] seeks no support from be-ing.206 Essential thinking pays

attention to the hesitant indication [Zeichen] by the incalculable and recognizes

in it the arrival from time immemorial of the inevitable. Such thinking is attentive

to the truth of be[ing] and in this way helps along the be[ing] of truth that finds in

its place [Stätte] in historical humanity [geschichtlichen Menschentum]. Such

help effects no results because it has no need of effect [Wirkung]. Essential

thinking is of avail simply as an urgency of existence, in that something of it

breaks out [entzundet sich] without being able either to control it or even know

anything of it.

204 The point is that giving something up or sacrificing (in this case be-ing)

does not mean losing anything.

205 Both the objective and subjective genitive are in play here.

206 "Das Denken des Seins sucht im Seiende keinen Anhalt." (NWM 311)

Variant: Thinking of be[ing] hasn't got a clue about be-ing.

Obedient to the voice of be[ing], thinking looks to it for those words which the

truth of be[ing] finds becoming in language.207 Only when the language of

historical man is put into words has it reached its own proper depth [ist sie im

Lot]. But if it has found its depth, then it is given a sign of the guarantee of the

silent voice of a hidden source. Thinking of be[ing] minds [hütet]208 words and

fulfills its destiny in such watchfulness [Behutsamkeit]. It is care for usage [Sorge

für den Sprachgebrauch].209 From a long held silence [Sprachlosigkeit] and

careful clarification210 of what is shed light on in that realm come the

pronouncements [Sagen] of the thinker. The naming [Nennen] of the poet has

the same genealogy [Herkunft]. Because, however, what is equivalent [das

Gleiche] is equivalent only as what has been distinguished [das Verschiedene],

the poet and the thinker are equals, and although poetry and thinking are most

clearly alike in their carefulness with words, both are at the same time the most

207 "Das Denken, gehorsam der Stimme des Seins, sucht diesem das Wort, aus

dem die Wahrheit des Seins zur Sprache kommt." (NWM 311) These are words

that fit or are appropriate to the truth of be[ing].

208 Variant: Thinking of be[ing] oversees or looks after words . . ..

209 Heidegger's use of 'Sorge' here carries the additional message of his

sorrow about the way language was being used.

210 Clearing up of meanings of words in light of what thinks be[ing].

widely separated in nature. The thinker utters be[ing].211 The poet names the

holy. †212Admittedly, thought from the nature of be[ing], the way poetry and

thanking and thinking refer to each other and at the same time are distinct must

remain open. Presumably, thanking and poetry come in different ways of

thinking in its inception, making use of it but without letting themselves become

something for thought.

We no doubt know a lot about the relation of philosophy and creative writing

[Poesie].213 But we know nothing about the dialogue between the poet and

the thinker, who "live nearby on distant peaks."214

211 "Der Denker sagt das Sein. Der Dichter nennt das Heilige." (NWM 312)

Variant: The thinker announces / heralds be[ing].

212 †The remaining lines of this paragraph were added to the postscript

beginning with the fifth edition (1949) of the lecture. The Gesamtausgabe

edition of Wegmarken does not note this addition.

213 The distinction being made is between 'der Dichter' (the classical poet),

'das Dichten' (what the classical poet does) and 'die Dichtung' (poetry or

literature in general), on the one hand, and between 'das Dichten' (writing

poetry) and 'die Poesie' ("creative writing"), on the other. As Heidegger had

already noticed by 1949, philosophy and literary criticism were mingling in

continental intellectual life.

One of essential sites [Wesensstätte] of silence is dread, in the sense of the terror

in which the abyss of no-thing is the right thing for [stimmt] man. No-thing as the

other than [das Andere]215 be-ing is the veil of be[ing].*216 In be[ing], every

venture [Geschick] of be-ing has already been consummated at its inception.

The final poetry of the last poet at the beginning of Greek civilization, Oedipus at

Colonus by Sophocles, closes with words that unknowingly return to

[zurückwendet] the hidden history of this people and preserve access to the

unknown truth of be[ing]:

214 The quotation is from Friedrich Hölderlin's "Patmos," lines 11-12. " . . . und

die Liebsten / Nah wohnen, ermattend auf / Getrenntesten Bergen." See the bi-

lingual edition of Hölderlin. Poems and Fragments, translated by Michael

Hamburger (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1967), pp. 463-464.

215 Variant: None other than be-ing is the veil of be[ing].

216 *Fifth edition (1949): "Das Nichts: das Nichtende, d.h. als Unterschied, ist als

Schleier des Seins, d.h. des Seyns im Sinne des Erignisses des Brauchs [no-thing:

what is nihilating, that is, as difference, is the veil of be[ing], that is, of bey[ing] in

the sense of the eventuality of what is customary]." (NWM 312) One more

neologism ('das Nichtende') is added at this point to the basic terms of the

lecture.

t__Z t" "_B_*_ __ Z Ö"_ "__<4

_$å_ _ Ö__<$_*_˙

"6_*4( _n$ Ü0__ *6 _ 0∑$ (.

Doch laßt nun ab, und nie mehr fürderhin,

Die Klage wecket auf;

Überallhin nämlich hält bei sich das Ereignete

verwahrt ein Entscheid der Vollendung.217

But let it out now, and nevermore

raise complaint;

that is, always hold to what has gone before

217 In Scene 8, lines 1777-79, the Chorus speaks the last lines of the play:

Now let the weeping cease;

Let no one mourn again.

These things are in the hands of God.

Sophocles, Volume 1, in The Complete Greek Tragedies, translated by Robert

Fitzgerald, edited by David Grene and Richard Lattimore (1941) Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, p. 155. Heidegger adds a line to Sophocles' text!

[that safeguards a decision of fulfillment].

TRANSLATOR’S CONCLUDING NOTE

I am convinced that all philosophy must be read in the language of its

composition and every translation should be published in a bi-lingual edition.

The Loeb Classical Series has done this with the Greek and Latin authors. It

should be a matter of course for philosophy to be presented in the same way.

Only a few of Heidegger's texts have been brought into English in bi-lingual

editions.218 Here I want add a few remarks explaining a number of the

translations I have made of key terms. These remarks summarize what has

already been said in notes accompanying the translation.

218 Apart from several letters and some verse, the following essays appear in

bi-lingual editions: The Concept of Time (1992) London: Blackwell (William

McNeill); "Messkirch's Seventh Centennial," in Listening (Dubuque) 8, 1973, 41-57

(Thomas Sheehan); The Essence of Reasons (1969) Evanston: Northwestern

University Press (Terrence Malick); Identity and Difference (1969) New York:

Harper and Row (Joan Stambaugh); "The Pathway," in Listening (Dubuque) 8,

1973, 32-39. Reprinted in Thomas Sheehan (ed.), Heidegger. The Man and the

Thinker (1981) Chicago: Precedent Publishing Company, 69-72 (Thomas

Sheehan); "The Question of Being (1958) New York: Twayne (William Kluback

and Jean T. Wilde); What Is Philosophy? (1958) New York: Twayne, 1989 (William

Kluback and Jean T. Wilde).

'Das Seiende' (be-ing) is a substantive of the present participle 'seiend' (being) of

the verb 'sein' (to be). It is hyphenated to bring out the root 'sei- ' (be- ). It

means "effective actuality" in contrast to what is not to be found at all ('das

Nichts'). It does not mean an entity or entities in Heidegger's texts. There are

many kinds of effective actuality, including human beings (Menschen). 'Das

Seiende' is generic term. On one occasion, Heidegger uses the term 'seienden

Menschen', which is translated "actual human beings."

'Das Seiendheit' (be-ingness) is the character of effective actuality.

'Das Sein' (be[ing]) is a substantive of the infinitive of the verb 'sein' (be). It is

read "be[ing]" but pronounced "be". The root is italicized for emphasis and to

distinguish it from the infinitive when it is used in the text. All of Heidegger's

efforts are directed toward clarifying the meaning of be[ing].

For me, a pivotal term in understanding Heidegger is 'das Seiende', which he

uses in his unique way beginning with Being and Time (1927). It could be still

understood to mean "entity" in the lecture "Der Begriff der Zeit [The Concept of

Time]" (1924). Once it is clear what Heidegger means to do with the term, how it

works for him, the question about the 'Sinn' (sense) of be[ing] comes into focus.

Be[ing] is that by which any kind of be-ing emerges.

'Das Dasein' (existence) is the name for the unique status of the human kind of

be-ing. On occasion, it is translated "being there" to stress the singularity of

existence in every instance.

'Die Existenz' (life) is the name for the particular situation of 'das Dasein'

(existence) among the variety of kinds of be-ing. It refers to what a biography

recounts, not physiological viability. Heidegger had abandoned the word

'Leben' and talk of "human life" by the time he wrote Being and Time. His view is

decidedly not in the tradition of Dilthey's Lebensphilosophie.

'Das Nichts' (no-thing) is the complete absence of any and all 'Seiende'. See the

long note accompanying the lecture on the various nugatory terms Heidegger

employs in his study of no-thing.

The earlier translations of the lecture and the essays that introduce and

comment on it have not made clear what is a straightforward argument about

the sense of talking about no-thing. There is no need to speak about "the

Nothing" as though to confuse it with the experience of dread that provides

access to it and turn it into something to be dreaded. Capitalizing the word

'being' when translating 'das Sein' does not shed any light on Heidegger's efforts

to understand the sheer possibility that the root of the infinitive expresses. There

is also no need to defer translation of 'das Dasein'. It means "existence," if

existence is understood as the unique status of the human kind of be-ing. The

lines in the introduction which contrast human be-ing with every other kind of

be-ing, all of which "are" in some way, are crucial here. Rocks, trees, horses,

angels and God are, but none of them exist. Only the human kind of be-ing

exists.

'Die Gegenwart' (present) is the present of a particular instance of human be-

ing, you or I. It is also the German word for the present tense in grammar. In two

illuminating passages in the lecture, Heidegger refers to the present of the

existence of someone who is loved, which reveals the sense of any be-ing at all,

and the present of no-thing, which dread reveals. It is also the German word for

the present tense in grammar.

The verb 'wesen' (to come to be) is used to express the change from no-thing to

be-ing. Each kind of be-ing comes to be (west) in its own way. For the human

kind of be-ing, that means existing. Thus our essence (Wesen), what we come to

be, is existence (Dasein). Everything else is and that, too, in various ways.

'Das Ereignis' is the eventuality, the possible reality, that there will any kind of be-

ing will come to pass (ereignen). This rests with be[ing], which must be

construed in a way that more primordial than the distinction between ontology

and linguistics. Of course, without language there would not be 'ontology' and

'language'. The 'sei- ' (be- ) that requires the human kind of be-ing, existence, to

sound at all is, then, for Heidegger neither linguistic nor ontological, neither a

matter of naming (what the poet does) or uttering (what the thinker does), but

more basic than both. Metaphysics is the human inclination (Kant) to delve into

their common ground.

Be[ing] and utterance are like two tone which need each other to produce

harmony. The image from musical is unmistakable in Heidegger. The "voice of

be[ing]" is silent without language, which mediates between be[ing] and

existence. Existence would not speak, were it not for be[ing]. Together be[ing]

and existence make two-part harmony, the characteristic sound of the Middle

Ages. Be[ing] is the "ground bass" and language is the melody. Only existence

sings with be[ing]. Be[ing] may also be construed as the grammatical middle

voice which is lacking in modern languages. Heidegger tries to recover it in

German; hence his interest in etymology. We are prompted to do the same in

English, thanks to Heidegger's efforts.

After the return [Kehre] to thinking only about be[ing] following his excursus into

analysis of existence, Heidegger focuses on the eventuality [Ereignis] of be[ing]

in his renewed study. He is no less concerned with how there can be any kind of

be-ing whatsoever, given the alternative. The alternative would not have come

into play, of course, with that eventuality.

NOTE: This translation is for private dissemination only and is not authorized by
copyright holders of the works of Martin Heidegger.

Martin heidegger what is metaphysics

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