On the Way to Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy

On the Inception of Being-Historical Thinking and Its Active Character, Mindfulness

On the Inception of Being-Historical Thinking and Its Active Character, Mindfulness It seems to require little argument that with the appearance of Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning) and Mindfulness Heidegger's thought once again calls for renewed appropriation-once again because with the appearance of Heidegger's lecture course texts that precede Being and Time the opportunity for such an appropriation has presented itself once before. Although thus far the availability of these lecture course texts has not led to a renewed appropriation of Being and Time, with the appearance of Contributions to Philosophy and Mindfulness the situation changes considerably.58 With the availability of these two major works, philosophy today once again is given a unique opportunity for appropriating Heidegger's thought from the ground up. Such an appropriation, should it come to pass, must address the relationship between these two major works and the unfolding of being-historical thinking as mindfulness in both. This task presupposes a familiarity with the transformation of the transcendental-horizonal onset of the thinking of being. To show that being-historical thinking begins from within the transformation of the transcendental-horizonal onset of the thinking of being and to demonstrate that this inception determines the unfolding of being-historical thinking as mindfulness in both Contributions to Philosophy and Mindfulness is to fulfill the minimum requirements for a renewed appropriation of Heidegger's thought. In the following discussion, I take the question of ontological difference , as dealt with in Contributions to Philosophy, as an avenue to the inception of being-historical thinking and to its unfolding as mindfulness. This entails examining both Heidegger's reassessment of this difference and his effort to trace it back to enowning by enacting a thinking that unfolds as mindfulness, which in turn requires me to address mindfulness 135 Copyrighted Material On the Inception ofBeing-Historical Thinking as Heidegger discusses it in Mindfulness. We shall see that mindfulness is not an attribute of or an addendum to being-historical thinking but the very enactment of this thinking itself. In this vein, we shall see that being-historical thinking as mindfulness highlights the relationship between Contributions to Philosophy and Mindfulness. I To highlight the transformation of the transcendental-horizonal onset of the thinking of being, and to discuss the unfolding of being-historical thinking as mindfulness, I must address Heidegger's new position on ontological difference as laid out in section 132 of Contributions to Philosophy . He presents the gist of this new position in the statement that reads: "Therefore the task is not to surpass beings (transcendence) but rather to leap over this distinction and thus over transcendence and to inquire inceptually into be-ing and truth" (Contributions, 177). The new stance on the ontological difference requires that the new thinking called being-historical leap over transcendence, that is, over an occurrence that presupposes the difference between being and beings. In this connection we must ask two questions: who enacts the transcending, and who enacts the leap? The response to both is: Dasein, that is, the so-called thrown projecting-open (der geworfene Entwurj). Taking the path of transcendental-horizonal thinking of Being and Time, Dasein enacts the surpassing or transcending of beings. Staying on the path of being-historical thinking of Contributions to Philosophy, Dasein enacts the leap. However, there is a significant difference between these enactments. While transcending beings leaves the structure of Dasein intact, the leaping over transcendence radically transforms Dasein's structure, that is, thrown projecting-open. Under the impact of the leap, thrownness no longer means thrownness into the facticity of disclosedness and projecting-open no longer indicates projecting-opening the factical disclosedness. Rather, as a consequence of the enactment of the leap, thrownness proves to be en-owned by be-ing and projecting-open proves to be the opening up of this enownment. This enownment gives rise to being-historical thinking. Heidegger captures this enownment succinctly when he notes: "[The leap] is the enactment of projecting-open the truth of be-ing in the sense of shifting into the open, such that the thrower of the projecting-open experiences itself as thrown, i.e., as en-owned by be-ing" (Contributions, 169). Whereas in Being and Time Heidegger understands thrownness as Copyrighted Material On the Inception ofBeing-Historical Thinking 1}7 thrownness into the facticity of disclosedness and projecting-open as disclosing or opening up of the factical disclosedness, in...