Being and Truth

Contents

Translator's Forewardxv

THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION OF PHILOSOPHY

Summer Semester 1933

Introduction

The Fundamental Question of Philosophy and the Fundamental Happening of Our History

§ 1. The spiritual-political mission as a decision for the fundamental question

§ 2. The Greek questioning in poetry and thought and the inception of philosophy. Philosophy as the incessant, historical, questioning struggle over the essence and Being of beings

§ 3. What philosophy is not. Rejection of inadequate attempts to define it

§ 4. The fundamental question of philosophy and the confrontation with the history of the Western spirit in its highest position: Hegel

MAIN PART

The Fundamental Question and Metaphysics:
Preparation for a Confrontation with Hegel

Chapter One

The Development, Transformation, and Christianization of Traditional Metaphysics

§ 5. Considerations for the confrontation with Hegel

§ 6. The concept of metaphysics and its transformation up to the time of classical modern metaphysics

a) The origin of the concept of metaphysics as a bibliographical title for particular Aristotelian writings (μετὰ τὰ φυσικά)

b) From the bibliographical title to the substantive concept. The Christian transformation of the concept of metaphysics: knowledge of the supersensible (trans physicam)

§ 7. Kant’s critical question regarding the possibility of metaphysical cognition and the classical division of metaphysics

a) On the influence of the Christianization of the concept of metaphysics

b) The three rational disciplines of modern metaphysics and Kant’s question regarding the inner possibility and limits of metaphysical cognition as cognition on the basis of pure reason

Chapter Two

The System of Modern Metaphysics and the First of Its Primary Determining Grounds: The Mathematical

§ 8. Preliminary remarks on the concept and meaning of the mathematical in metaphysics

a) The task: a historical return to the turning points in the concept of metaphysics

b) The Greek concept of the teachable and learnable (τὰ μαθήματα) and the inner connection between the “mathematical” and the “methodological”

§ 9. The precedence of the mathematical and its advance decision regarding the content of modern philosophy: the possible idea of knowability and truth

§ 10. Modern metaphysics in its illusory new inception with Descartes and its errors

a) The usual picture of Descartes: the rigorous new grounding of philosophy on the basis of radical doubt

b) The illusion of radicalism and the new grounding in Descartes under the predominance of the mathematical conception of method

α) Methodical doubt as the way to what is ultimately indubitable. The simplest and most perspicuous as fundamentum

β) The process of doubt as an illusion. The substantive advance ruling in favor of something indubitable that has the character of the present-at-hand

γ) The fundamentum as the I

δ) The I as self. Self-reflection as a delusion

ε) The essence of the I (self) as consciousness

ζ) The self as I and the I as “subject.” The transformation of the concept of the subject

c) The substantive consequence of the predominance of the mathematical conception of method: the failure to reach the authentic self of man and the failure of the fundamental question of philosophy. The advance decision of mathematical certainty regarding truth and Being

§ 11. The predominance of the mathematical conception of method in the formation of metaphysical systems in the eighteenth century

§ 12. Introductory concepts from Wolff’s Ontology. The point of departure: the philosophical principles of all human cognition

Chapter Three

Determination by Christianity and the Concept of Mathematical-Methodological Grounding in the Metaphysical Systems of Modernity

§ 13. The two main tasks that frame modern metaphysics: the grounding of the essence of Being in general and the proof of the essence and existence of God

§ 14. The mathematical character of the system at the basis of Baumgarten’s metaphysics

a) The concept of veritas metaphysica: the agreement of what is with the most universal principles

b) Preliminary considerations on the principial character of the principle by which the ens in communi is supposed to be determined

§ 15. Baumgarten’s starting point as the possibile (what can be) and the logical principle of contradiction as the absolutely first principle of metaphysics

§ 16. Remarks on the grounding of the principium primum. The principle of contradiction and human Dasein: the preservation of the selfsameness of the selfsame

§ 17. The mathematical-logical determination of the starting point, goal, and deductive method in Baumgarten’s metaphysical system

a) The summum ens as perfectissimum. The belonging of the perfectum to the concept of Being and its suitability as leading to the highest being

b) The main steps in the construction of the metaphysical system

α) Beginning with what is thinkable in thought as judgment (assertion) and the principle of sufficient reason

β) The logical delimitation of the ens. Possibilitas as essentia (what-Being): compatibility of the internal and simple determinations

γ) The relatio ad unum of essentia as perfectum. The mathematical sense of the concord of the perfectum

δ) The suitability of the perfectum as leading to the summum ens: the mathematically-logically necessary capacity of the perfectum to be increased to the perfectissimum

ε) The summum ens as perfectissimum and the inherent determinations of its Being

Chapter Four

Hegel: The Completion of Metaphysics as Theo-logic

§ 18. Transition to Hegel

§ 19. The fundamental character of Hegelian metaphysics. Metaphysics as theo-logic

a) Hegel’s metaphysics as logic

α) The science of logic as authentic metaphysics

β) Metaphysics as logic in its higher form. The logic of the logos as logic of the pure essentialities

γ) The higher logic as logic of reason

αα) The essence of reason as self-conscious knowing

ββ) The truth (the self-knowledge) of reason as absolute spirit

b) Logic as the system of the absolute self-consciousness of God: theo-logic

§ 20. The completion of Western philosophy in metaphysics as theo-logic and the questionworthiness of this “completion”

Conclusion

§ 21. Confrontation and engagement

ON THE ESSENCE OF TRUTH

Winter Semester 1933-1934

Introduction

The Question of Essence as Insidious and Unavoidable

§ 1. The question of the essence of truth and the willing of what is true in our Dasein

§ 2. The question of the essence of essence.
Presuppositions and beginning

a) Dasein’s becoming essential in authentic care for its ability to be and the putting to work of the essence of things.
The how of essence

b) The question of the what of essence. Harkening back to the Greek inception

§ 3. The saying of Heraclitus. Struggle as the essence of beings

a) The first part of the saying. Struggle as the power of generation and preservation: innermost necessity of beings

b) The second part of the saying. The sway of the double power of struggle and the decisive domains of power

§ 4. On the truth of the Heraclitean saying

a) Two traditional meanings of truth. Truth as un-concealment (ἀ-λήθεια) and as correctness

b) The indeterminate prior knowing of truth and the superior power of Being

§ 5. On truth and language

a) The human bond to the superior power of Being and the necessity of language

b) The logical-grammatical conception of language

c) The characterization of language as sign and expression

d) Toward a positive delimitation of the essence of language

e) The ability to keep silent as the origin and ground of language

f) Language as the gathered openedness for the overpowering surge of beings

g) Language as lawgiving gathering and revelation of the structure of beings

h) Language as λόγος and as μῦθος

§ 6. The double sway of the struggle (ἔδειξε—ἐποίησε) as indication of the connection between Being and truth

§ 7. The historical transformation of the essence of truth and Dasein

§ 8. The disappearance of truth as un-concealment in the traditional transmission of the concept of truth

a) The long-accustomed conception of truth as correctness. The agreement between proposition and thing

b) The last struggle between the earlier (inceptive) and later concept of truth in the philosophy of Plato

§ 9. The start of the investigation with the myth of the “allegory of the cave” as the center of Platonic philosophy

Part One

Truth and Freedom: An Interpretation of the Allegory of the Cave in Plato’s Republic

Chapter One

The Four Stages of the Happening of Truth

§ 10.Interpretive procedure and the structure of the allegory of the cave

A. The first stage (514a–515c)

§ 11. The situation of the human being in the subterranean cave

§ 12. What is unconcealed in the cave

B. The second stage (515c–515e5)

§ 13. A “liberation” of the human being within the cave

§ 14. Expanded conception of unconcealment in the failure of the first attempt at liberation

C. The third stage (515e5–516e2)

§ 15. The authentic liberation of the human being to the originary light

§ 16. Liberation and unconcealment. Four questions about their connection

§ 17. On the concept of the idea

a) Preliminary remark on the significance of the doctrine of the ideas in the history of spirit

b) The fundamental orientation of knowledge toward “seeing” and what is seen

§ 18. Idea and light

a) On the idea in the context of Platonic thought. The priority of seeing and its broader concept

b) The seeing of what-Being. Idea and Being: presencing—self-presence in the view

c) The essence of light and brightness: transparency that is perceived and seen in advance

§ 19. Light and freedom

a) On the determination of man on the basis of seeing, hearing, and speaking

b) Freedom as binding oneself to the illuminating

§ 20. Freedom and beings (Being)

a) Freedom as binding oneself to the essential law of Dasein and of things

b) The view of essence that reaches ahead as a projection of Being (with examples from nature, history, art, and poetry)

§ 21. On the question of the essence of truth as unconcealment

a) The doctrine of ideas and the question of truth

b) Degrees of unconcealment. The ideas as what is originally unconcealed (ἀληθινόν) and what is in the proper sense (ὄντως ὄν)

c) The ideas as what is seen in a pre-figuring (projective) viewing

d) On the question of the character of the Being of the ideas

§ 22. The happening of truth and the human essence

a) The allegory of the cave as history (happening) of man

b) Unconcealing as a fundamental characteristic of human ex-sistence

c) On the essential determination of man. Truth as a fundamental happening in the human essence

D. The fourth stage (516e3–517a6)

§ 23. The return of the liberated man into the cave

§ 24. The philosopher as liberator. His fate in the happening of revealing and concealing

Chapter Two

The Idea of the Good and Unconcealment

§ 25. Being free: acting together in the historical con-frontation of truth and untruth

a) The philosopher’s freedom: being a liberator in the transition

b) Truth and untruth. Modes of untruth as concealment

§ 26. The idea of the good as highest idea: the empowerment of Being and unconcealment

a) The idea of the idea. On grasping the highest idea on the basis of the general essence of idea

b) Approach to the complete determination of the idea of the good as the highest idea

§ 27. The idea of the good and light as the yoke between seeing and the visible—truth and Being

a) Seeing (ὁρᾶν) and understanding that apprehends (νοεῖν)

b) The good as the higher empowering power for Being and truth in their linked essence

§ 28. The development of the essence of truth as history of humanity

a) Review: the inner order of the question of the essence of truth

b) The good as the empowerment of truth and Being in their belonging together

c) Philosophy as παιδεία of humanity for the innermost change in its Being. The development of the essence of truth through human history

On 30 January 1933: Kolbenheyer

d) On the proper approach to the question of the human essence

Chapter Three

The Question of the Essence of Untruth

§ 29. The disappearance of the fundamental experience of ἀλήθεια and the necessity of a transformed retrieval of the question of truth

a) The question of the essence of truth as the question of the history of the human essence

b) The existential determination of human Being and the question of the truth of humanity

c) The lack of questioning about the Being of the good as yoke and about unconcealment as such

d) The necessity of a transformed retrieval

§ 30. The lack of questioning about the essence of concealment from which the un-concealed can be wrested

a) The transformation of the question of the essence of truth into the question of untruth

b) Preliminary clarification of the fundamental concepts: ψεῦδος, λήθη, and ἀ-λήθεια

Part Two

An Interpretation of Plato’s Theaetetus with Regard to the Question of the Essence of Untruth

Chapter One

Preliminary Considerations on the Greek Concept of Knowledge

§ 31. On the question of the essence of ἐπιστήμη

§ 32. Fundamental points concerning the Greek concept of knowledge

a) The basis for the detour through Greek philosophy

b) The breadth and the fundamental meaning of the Greek concept of knowledge and the origin of the question of untruth

Chapter Two

Theaetetus’s Answers to the Question of the Essence of Knowledge and their Rejection

§ 33. The first answer: ἐπιστήμη is αἴσθησις
Critical delimitation of the essence of perception

a) αἴσθησις as the fundamental form of apprehending things and allowing them to come upon us. The determinate, yet limited openness of αἴσθησις

b) The insufficiency of αἴσθησις for distinguishing the manifold domains of what is perceived and the characteristics of their Being

c) The soul as the relation to beings that unifies and holds open

§ 34. The second answer: ἐπιστήμη is δόξα

a) The double sense of δόξα as view: look and belief

b) The apparent suitability of δόξα as ἐπιστήμη: its double character corresponds to αἴσθησις and διάνοια

c) The multiple ambiguity of δόξα. The split between letting-appear and distorting: the arising of the ψεῦδος in the question of the essence of knowledge

Chapter Three

The Question of the Possibility of ψευδὴς δόξα

§ 35. Preliminary investigation: the impossibility of the phenomenon of ψευδὴς δόξα

a) The arising of the ψεῦδος in the elucidation of δόξα as ἐπιστήμη

b) The field of vision of the preliminary investigation as an advance decision about the impossibility of the phenomenon

α) The alternatives of familiarity and unfamiliarity

β) The alternatives of Being and not-Being

γ) ψευδὴς δόξα as ἀλλοδοξία (substitution instead of confusion)

§ 36. The decision for the phenomenon of ψευδὴς δόξα

a) On the scope and character of the decision

b) The new starting point for posing the question by way of the deepened question concerning the constitution of the soul

§ 37. Determining the soul more deeply and broadly through two similes

a) The wax simile. Being mindful (making-present)

b) The aviary simile. Modes of containing

§ 38. Clarification of the double sense of δόξα. Mistakes are made possible by the bifurcation of δόξα into presencing and making-present

§ 39. The essence of truth as historical man’s struggle with untruth. Untruth is posited with the enabling of the essence of truth

Appendix I

Notes and drafts for the lecture course of Summer Semester 1933

1.–8. The fundamental question of philosophy

9. Cessation

10. Our historical meditation

11. Kant’s authentic work {re: [German] p. 26}

12. {Remembering our intention}

13. The confrontation with Hegel’s metaphysics

14. The confrontation with Hegel (Kierkegaard and Nietzsche)

15. {The Christian and the mathematical in Hegel}

16. Kierkegaard and Hegel—Nietzsche and Hegel

17. {Inception and semblance}

Appendix II

Notes and drafts for the lecture course of Winter Semester 1933–1934

1. Thomas: veritas; intellectus

2. {The dominant conception of truth as correctness

3. Context

4. {The question of truth as question of a historical decision}

5. Recapitulation of the lecture, 9 January 1934

6. {Plato’s allegory of the cave}

7. {On the inner order of our questioning}

8. {Truth—untruth; transition to Theaetetus}

9. Translation and elucidation of Plato, Theaetetus 184–87

10. Theaetetus 184b ff.

11. Theaetetus 184d {re: §33c}

Editor’s Afterword

German–English Glossary

Being and Truth (GA 36/37) [GA App]

Ereignis