Table Of ContentHERACLITUS
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HERACLITUS
The Inception of Occidental Thinking
Logic: Heraclitus’s Doctrine of the L ogos
Martin Heidegger
Translated by Julia Goesser Assaiante
and S. Montgomery Ewegen
iii
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First published in M artin Heidegger Gesamtausgabe vol 55: Heraklit. 1. Der Anfang des
abendl ä ndischen Denkens 2. Logik. Heraklits Lehre vom Logos , edited by Manfred Frings,
© Vittorio Klostermann GmbH, Frankfurt am Main 1979. 3rd edition 1994
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CONTENTS
Translator’s Foreword xv
THE INCEPTION OF OCCIDENTAL THINKING:
HERACLITUS
1
Summer Semester 1943
Preliminary concerns: Philosophy as the authentic
thinking of the to-b e-thought. On the inception of
“Occidental” thinking 3
INTRODUCTION: PRELIMINARY
CONSIDERATION OF THE INCEPTUAL
AND THE WORD
5
§ 1 Two stories concerning Heraclitus as introduction
to his word 7
a) Heraclitus’s thinking in the region of fi re and strife and in the
nearness to play 8
b) Heraclitus’s word under the protection of Artemis 12
c) The obscurity of the thinker Heraclitus 16
Review 18
1) The reference to ‘fi re’ and ‘play’ in the two stories concerning
Heraclitus 18
2) The to-b e-thought in the signs of Artemis: lyre, bow, and torch.
The obscurity of the thinker 20
v
§ 2 The word in the inception of thinking 23
a) The ‘obscurity’ of essential thinking: the essential self-
concealing of the to-b e-thought (i.e., being) 23
b) The essentially oppositional, and dialectical thinking. The
unfi tting language of dialectic 26
c) The form in which the word of Heraclitus’s is passed down,
and the elucidation of the fragments in terms of the experience
of the to-b e-thought 28
Review 31
Regarding the problem of the sameness of what is thought in
inceptual and contemporary thinking. The inherited word of
inceptual thinking (Heraclitus) and dialectics 31
MAIN PART: THE TRUTH OF BEING
35
§ 3 The inception of the inceptual to-b e-thought.
Fragment 16 37
a) Parenthetical remark on the task of translating 37
b) The question pertaining to the ‘never submerging thing’ and its
essential relation to ‘concealing’ 38
c) The characteristics of the foundational word τ ὸ δῦνον and its
exposition in the guiding question of metaphysical thinking
(Aristotle) 42
d) Mindful consideration of the words ‘being’ and ‘is’ 47
Review 49
1) On translation and interpretation: the compulsion into an
originary understanding from out of the experienced
restiveness of ‘the same’ 49
2) ‘Submerging’—thought in a Greek way—and the question
concerning the essence of the word 50
3) Elucidation of τὸ δῦνον in terms of the structure of the words of
the main question of metaphysical thinking (Aristotle, Plato).
Concerning the problem of retroactive interpretation: the
inceptual thinkers and the later beginning of metaphysics 56
4) The characteristics of the word ὄ ν . The primacy of the verbal
meaning over the nominal meaning (in participles) 61
vi Contents
§ 4 The foundational words of inceptual thinking (φ ύσις,
ζωή ), and their relation to metaphysical thinking and
to the thinking of being 65
a) The peculiar poverty of inceptually thoughtful utterance in the
structure of the words τ ὸ μὴ δῦνόν ποτε and their transformation
into ‘perpetual emerging’ (φ ύειν ). On the word φ ύσις in
inceptual thinking, and on the concept of ‘nature.’ Note on
fragment 123 65
b) The foundational words φ ύσις and ζ ωή as obtained through the
translation. The fundamental meaning of ζ ῆν and ζ ωή in
inceptual thinking over and against the concept of ‘life’ in the
metaphysical tradition. Note on fragment 30 68
c) The ‘violence’ of the translation and the explicit consideration of
negation 72
Review 73
1) The μὴ δῦνόν ποτε of Heraclitus’s, thought inceptually, and the
ὄν of metaphysics 73
2) The inceptually unblemished meaning of φ ύσις as the ‘pure
emerging’ and its essential nearness to ζ ωή . The essential
nearness of ‘life’ and ‘being’ in ἀ είζωον (fragment 30). Rejection
of the metaphysical interpretations of the concept of life 76
§ 5 Exposition of the essential connectedness of
emerging and submerging. Fragment 123 83
a) The ‘contradiction’ of emerging and submerging. The failure of
logic and dialectic in the face of this ‘contradiction’ 84
b) The standing-s till of conventional thinking in the face of the
‘irreconcilable,’ and the leap into essential thinking. Philological
translations as fl ight in the face of the claim of the saying 88
Review 92
On the essential relationship of emerging and submerging.
Rejection of logical (dialectical) interpretations 92
§ 6 Emerging and submerging. Favor (φ ιλία ) as the
reciprocal bestowing of its essence. Notes on
fragments 35 and 32 97
a) Emerging (φ ύσις ), favor ( φιλία ), and self-c oncealing ( κρύπτεσθαι ) 97
Contents vii
b) φιλία (favor, bestowal) as the reciprocal essential relation of
emerging and submerging (self-c oncealing). φ ύσις as the
simple essence of the favor (φ ιλία ) of the concealing
emergence 100
§ 7 φύσις as the essential jointure (ἁ ρμονία ) of emerging
and submerging (self-c oncealing) in the reciprocal
bestowal of its essence. Indication of the same in
emerging and submerging. Fragments 54, 8,
and 51 107
a) The inconspicuousness of the jointure of φ ύσις as the unique
feature of its revealability. The originarily precious essence of
pure emerging 108
b) The contra-t ension and counter-t ension as the essential
moment of the jointure. Concerning the diffi culty in thinking the
counter-s triving at one with the jointure: the difference between
conventional and essential thinking. The jointure of φ ύσις and
the signs of Artemis (bow and lyre). Note on fragment 9 110
c) The inadequacy of logic (dialectic) in the face of the jointure
thought in φ ύσις . The two- fold meaning of φ ύσις and the
questionable ‘priority’ of emerging 116
§ 8 The essence of φ ύσις and the truth of being. φ ύσις
in view of fi re and cosmos. ἀλήθεια thought in the
μὴ δῦνόν ποτε ( φύσις ) as the dis-c losing into the
unconcealment of being. Fragments 64, 66, 30,
and 124 121
a) Fire and lightning as the enkindling of the lightening. The
cosmos as the fi tting, inconspicuous jointure and the originary
adornment. The same in fi re and cosmos: igniting and
lightening of the decisive measure-d ispensing expanses 121
b) ἀλήθεια as essential inception, and as the essential ground of
φύσις . The essential relation between unconcealment and
self- concealment in φ ύσις , thought inceptually. ἀ λήθεια as the
unconcealment of the self-c oncealing 129
viii Contents
c) On the hearing and saying of being in inceptual thinking: λ όγος
and signs. The signs of Apollo as the self-s howing of φύσις .
Fragment 93. On the truth and the word of beyng in Occidental
history 133
LOGIC: HERACLITUS’S DOCTRINE OF THE
LOGOS
137
Summer Semester 1944
Preliminary remark 139
FIRST SECTION
LOGIC: ITS NAME AND ITS MATTER
141
§ 1 The term ‘logic’ 143
a) The logic of thinking and the logic of things 143
b) ἐπιστήμη and τέχνη in relation to modern science and
technology 146
Review 149
1) The intimate connection between thinking and things. Logic,
pure thinking, and refl ection 149
2) Return to the Greek context at work in the naming of the
words ἐ πιστήμη λογική: ἐπιστήμη and τέχνη 152
§ 2 Logic, ἐπιστήμη, τέχνη . The related meanings of
ἐπιστήμη and τέχνη . An analysis regarding the
questionable relationship between thinking and logic 153
a) τέχνη, φύσις , and ἐ πιστήμη. τέχνη (to bring forth, to place-f orth)
and φύσις (to emerge from out of itself) in their relation to
unconcealment. A rejection of the interpretation of τ έχνη and
ἐπιστήμη in terms of the differentiation between theory and
practice 153
b) Logic as ἐ πιστήμη λογική in connection with ἐ πιστήμη φυσική
and ἐπιστήμη ἠθική . On the dominance of refl ection 156
Contents ix
