Introduction to Philosophy -- Thinking and Poetizing

Supplements

Supplements Second Version of the Review: Introduction to Philosophy—Thinking and Poetizing1 Philosophy is the thinking of thinkers. They think that which is, being, insofar as it determines beings. For a long time, and today still, that which comes to presence [das Anwesende], the present, counts for Western thinking as that which is. But even that which is in the process of arriving [das Kommende] already is in its arriving. That which was [das Gewesene] also still is, insofar as it comes to presence and passes over us. Future and origin approach each other. In this facing approach, future and origin surpass each other alternatively in different expanses. What is present [das Gegenwärtige] first emerges from out of the facing approach of the future and the origin. [What is present] is that which appears to leap out of the facing approach and spread itself open for itself, and which makes it seem as if what is present were all that exists, while that which was is no longer and that which is to come is not yet—thus at each point they do not exist. What is present only exists as the alternating transition of what is to come into what was and of what was into what is to come. Therefore, every present moment is an ambiguous ambiguity. If we only search in the present for that which is, we will never find it, because what is present remains ambiguous, and this ambiguity stems directly from what exceeds the present and exists more so [eher] than does the present. 1. Important material about history and historiography and technology . [A review of GA 50, pp. 90–101.—Ed.] 51 Thinkers think that which is. Their thinking is thinking, the word is strictly used for them. Insofar as historical humans think of the future from out of the origin and of the origin from out of the future, and thus reflectively [andenkend] think what is present, humans continually think that which is. The historical human thinks. For this reason, there are times of impoverished thought and thoughtlessness in history. The historical human thinks. The human philosophizes. The historical human stands in philosophy. Therefore, we can also not first be introduced “to” philosophy. Nevertheless, a guide is necessary in order for historical humans to become at home and to first learn authentic dwelling where they already sojourn, however ineptly and obliviously. Historical humans think historically, i.e., from out of what has been sent into the appropriate that sends itself to the human. Thinking historically [geschichtlich] is something­ essentially different than thinking historiographically [his­ torisch].2 Historiography [Historie] thinks, if its mode of presentation may even be called that, unhistorically. Historiography necessarily ignores what is destined [Geschickhafte] and only speaks cursorily and thoughtlessly of destiny [Schicksal]. For historiography assumes that history [Geschichte] is a series of results, i.e., the sequential course of causes and effects. It calculates according to these. Historiographical portrayals of the past are blueprints of procedures and developments, of progression and failure, of victories and losses, of influences and impacts. Historiography computes history and calculates with it. Calculating is the fundamental trait of technology. Historiography is a mode of technical representation that seizes history in the claws of technology and of its own calculation . Modern historiography, like modern natural science, emerged from modern technology. Thus, if modern technology first begins in our century to unveil its heretofore concealed essence, an essence that does not consist at all in the 2. [In the following passage Heidegger will distinguish Historie from Geschichte, both of which translate into English as “history.” Heidegger’s critique of Historie parallels what we call “historiography” in English, and has been translated as that. Additionally, Geschichte comes from the verb geschehen, “that which has happened,” and resembles, although not etymologically, the German word for destiny, Geschick.—Trans.] 52 Supplements [147–148] manufacture of machines, then from an essentially historical perspective it precedes modern natural science as its destiny. Modern technology is not at all merely the application of modern natural science to the manufacture of machines and devices ; rather, from its beginning modern natural science is in its essence the technical assault on nature and its conquest [Eroberung]. The twentieth century, in which the age of modernity will most likely fulfill itself—not that it will end—can only be, in fact must therefore be, the age of technology, because this is the...