Heraclitus

The Inception of Occidental Thinking and Logic:
Heraclitus’s Doctrine of the Logos

CONTENTS

Translator’s Foreword

THE INCEPTION OF OCCIDENTAL THINKING: HERACLITUS

Summer Semester 1943

Preliminary concerns: Philosophy as the authentic thinking of the to-be-thought. On the inception of “Occidental” thinking

INTRODUCTION: PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATION OF THE INCEPTUAL AND THE WORD

§ 1 Two stories concerning Heraclitus as introduction to his word

a) Heraclitus’s thinking in the region of fire and strife and in the nearness to play

b) Heraclitus’s word under the protection of Artemis

c) The obscurity of the thinker Heraclitus

Review

1) The reference to ‘fire’ and ‘play’ in the two stories concerning Heraclitus

2) The to-be-thought in the signs of Artemis: lyre, bow, and torch. The obscurity of the thinker

§ 2 The word in the inception of thinking

a) The ‘obscurity’ of essential thinking: the essential self-concealing of the to-be-thought (i.e., being)

b) The essentially oppositional, and dialectical thinking. The unfitting language of dialectic

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-be-thought

Review

Regarding the problem of the sameness of what is thought in inceptual and contemporary thinking. The inherited word of inceptual thinking (Heraclitus) and dialectics

MAIN PART: THE TRUTH OF BEING

§ 3 The inception of the inceptual to-be-thought. Fragment 16

a) Parenthetical remark on the task of translating

b) The question pertaining to the ‘never submerging thing’ and its essential relation to ‘concealing

c) The characteristics of the foundational word τὸ δῦνόν and its exposition in the guiding question of metaphysical thinking (Aristotle)

d) Mindful consideration of the words ‘being’ and ‘is’

Review

1) On translation and interpretation: the compulsion into an originary understanding from out of the experienced restiveness of ‘the same’

2) ‘Submerging’—thought in a Greek way—and the question concerning the essence of the word

3) Elucidation of τὸ δῦνόν 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

4) The characteristics of the word ὄν. The primacy of the verbal meaning over the nominal meaning (in participles)

§ 4 The foundational words of inceptual thinking (φύσις, ζωή), and their relation to metaphysical thinking and to the thinking of being

a) The peculiar poverty of inceptually thoughtful utterance in the structure of the words τὸ μὴ δῦνόν ποτε and their transformation into ‘perpetual emerging’ (φύειν). On the word φύσις in inceptual thinking, and on the concept of ‘nature.’ Note on fragment 123

b) The foundational words φύσις and ζωή as obtained through the translation. The fundamental meaning of ζῆν and ζωή in inceptual thinking over and against the concept of ‘life’ in the metaphysical tradition. Note on fragment 30

c) The ‘violence’ of the translation and the explicit consideration of negation

Review

1) The μὴ δῦνόν ποτε of Heraclitus’s, thought inceptually, and the ὄν of metaphysics

2) The inceptually unblemished meaning of φύσις as the ‘pure emerging’ and its essential nearness to ζωή. The essential nearness of ‘life’ and ‘being’ in ἀείζωον (fragment 30). Rejection of the metaphysical interpretations of the concept of life

§ 5 Exposition of the essential connectedness of emerging and submerging. Fragment 123

a) The ‘contradiction’ of emerging and submerging. The failure of logic and dialectic in the face of this ‘contradiction’

b) The standing-still of conventional thinking in the face of the ‘irreconcilable,’ and the leap into essential thinking. Philological translations as flight in the face of the claim of the saying

Review

On the essential relationship of emerging and submerging. Rejection of logical (dialectical) interpretations

§ 6 Emerging and submerging. Favor (φιλία) as the reciprocal bestowing of its essence. Notes on fragments 35 and 32

a) Emerging (φύσις), favor (φιλία), and self-concealing (κρύπτεσθαι)

b) φιλία (favor, bestowal) as the reciprocal essential relation of emerging and submerging (self-concealing). φύσις as the simple essence of the favor (φιλία) of the concealing emergence

§ 7 φύσις as the essential jointure (ἁρμονία) of emerging and submerging (self-concealing) in the reciprocal bestowal of its essence. Indication of the same in emerging and submerging. Fragments 54, 8, and 51

a) The inconspicuousness of the jointure of φύσις as the unique feature of its revealability. The originarily precious essence of pure emerging

b) The contra-tension and counter-tension as the essential moment of the jointure. Concerning the difficulty in thinking the counter-striving at one with the jointure: the difference between conventional and essential thinking. The jointure of φύσις and the signs of Artemis (bow and lyre). Note on fragment 9

c) The inadequacy of logic (dialectic) in the face of the jointure thought in φύσις. The two-fold meaning of φύσις and the questionable ‘priority’ of emerging

§ 8 The essence of φύσις and the truth of being. φύσις in view of fire and cosmos. ἀλήθεια thought in the μὴ δῦνόν ποτε (φύσις) as the dis-closing into the unconcealment of being. Fragments 64, 66, 30, and 124

a) Fire and lightning as the enkindling of the lightening. The cosmos as the fitting, inconspicuous jointure and the originary adornment. The same in fire and cosmos: igniting and lightening of the decisive measure-dispensing expanses

b) ἀλήθεια as essential inception, and as the essential ground of φύσις. The essential relation between unconcealment and self-concealment in φύσις, thought inceptually. ἀλήθεια as the unconcealment of the self-concealing

On the hearing and saying of being in inceptual thinking: λόγος and signs. The signs of Apollo as the self-showing of φύσις. Fragment 93. On the truth and the word of beyng in Occidental history

LOGIC: HERACLITUS’S DOCTRINE OF THE LOGOS

Summer Semester 1944

Preliminary remark

FIRST SECTION LOGIC: ITS NAME AND ITS MATTER

§ 1 The term ‘logic’

a) The logic of thinking and the logic of things

b) ἐπιστήμη and τέχνη in relation to modern science and technology

Review

1) The intimate connection between thinking and things. Logic, pure thinking, and reflection

2) Return to the Greek context at work in the naming of the words ἐπιστήμη λογική: ἐπιστήμη and τέχνη

§ 2 Logic, ἐπιστήμη, τέχνη. The related meanings of ἐπιστήμη and τέχνη. An analysis regarding the questionable relationship between thinking and logic

a) τέχνη, φύσις, and ἐπιστήμη. τέχνη (to bring forth, to place-forth) and φύσις (to emerge from out of itself) in their relation to unconcealment. A rejection of the interpretation of τέχνη and ἐπιστήμη in terms of the differentiation between theory and practice

b) Logic as ἐπιστήμη λογική in connection with ἐπιστήμη φυσική and ἐπιστήμη ἠθική. On the dominance of reflection

Review

1) Logic as the reflection about reflection without an attachment to things. On the power of the self-reflection of subjectivity and pure thinking (Rilke, Hölderlin)

2) ἐπιστήμη λογική, ἐπιστήμη φυσική, ἐπιστήμη ἠθική

c) λόγος and ἦθος. The universal role of λόγος as ratio and reason in the determinations of the human essence and its consequential consummation in the “will to power” (Nietzsche)

Review

3) On the dominance of reflection and subjectivity. The question concerning the depth of pure thinking and the re-turn (Rilke, Hölderlin)

4) Logic as the doctrine of the assertion (concept, judgment, inference). λόγος, ratio, reason: on the universal meaning of logic in the determination of the human essence. The equating of thinking and logic as the origin of Occidental fate

§ 3 Logic and λόγος. The discipline and the matter. Logic and Occidental metaphysics

a) The origin of the three-fold division of logic, physics, and ethics as the scientific disciplines comprising philosophy, and the fate of Occidental metaphysics

b) Logic and the inhibiting of the unfolding of the essence of the Λόγος

Review

The dominance of the discipline over the matter, and logic as the grounding essence of Occidental philosophy as metaphysics

SECOND SECTION THE RECLUSIVENESS OF THE ORIGINARY Λόγος AND THE PATHS TO APPROACHING IT

§ 4 Preparation for the listening to the Λόγος

a) On the meaning of λόγος as speech, saying, and assertion. The necessity of a renewed questioning concerning the inceptual meaning of the Λόγος

b) Access to the hearing of the Λόγος. The hearkening listening to the Λόγος as an entryway into authentic knowledge. Fragment 50. The question concerning the originary concordance (ὁμολογία). References to fragments 32 and 112

Review

1) λόγος as assertion about beings by way of the idea (εἶδος), and the category in meta-physical thinking (Plato, Aristotle, Kant)

2) The return to the pre-metaphysical Λόγος through λόγος as assertion. Fragment 50

§ 5 Three paths toward answering the question: what is the Λόγος?

a) The first path: the Λόγος as One and all. Access to the Λόγος (as being) through the ἓν πάντα εἶναι in fragment 50

b) The second path: access to the Λόγος through the original meaning of λέγειν. The Λόγος as harvest and gathering

Review

1) Expanded reconsideration of λόγος within the horizon of the meta-physical doctrine of ideas, and of the to-be-thought pre-metaphysical essence of the Λόγος as the naming of being

c) The third path: access through the λόγος of the ψυχή. Fragment 45. The question concerning ὁμολογεῖν

Review

2) A reconsideration of fragments 50 and 45. The Λόγος as the self-disclosing all-uniting One and the original meaning of λόγος and λέγειν. The Λόγος as the for-gathering that dispenses the origin and thereby retains it

§ 6 The absent presence of the Λόγος for the human and the indication of the objectless region of the originary Λόγος

a) The harmony of fragments 50 and 45. The homological relation of the λόγος of the soul to the Λόγος. ὁμολογεῖν as the self-gathering toward the originary forgathering of the Λόγος of being

Review

1) The λόγος of the ψυχή as the gathering toward the originary, all-preserving gathering. The erroneousness of psychological views. Fragments 50 and 45. References to fragments 101 and 116

2) A reconsideration of the harmony of fragments 50 and 45. The drawing-in drawing-out of the λόγος of the ψυχή as the relation to beings as such and as a whole. The absent presence of the Λόγος for the human

b) The two-fold relation of the human to beings and to being: the forgotten, concealed presence of being in the everyday use of λόγος. Fragment 72. References to fragments 16, 45, 50, 101, 43, 118, 30, 64

c) The apparent contradiction between the Λόγος understood as gathering and understood as what has been ‘separated.’ Fragment 108. πάντων κεχωρισμένον as the distinct, to-be-thought determination of the Λόγος as ἓν πάντα, and as the object-less region of the Λόγος

d) The Λόγος as the regioning presencing in which and from out of which everything presences and absences, and the originary difference between beings and being

Review

3) The ambivalent two-fold of turning-toward and turning-away as the relation of the human to being and beings. The rupture in the two-foldedness of the two-fold and the relational rule of λόγοι. Fragment 72. References to fragments 50 and 108

THIRD SECTION RETREAT INTO THE ORIGINARY REGION OF LOGIC

§ 7 On the illumination of being, experienced through inceptual thinking. Fragments 108, 41, 64, 78, 119, 16, 115, 50, 112

a) The ‘steering vision’ and the jointure (ἁρμονία) of the originary forgathering. γνώμη and the Λόγος as the unifying One in the advising, counseling presence of the originary sheltering forgathering

b) Reconsideration of the ὁμολογεῖν of the ψυχή and the interpretation of the self-enriching of the human λόγος as the self-forgathering residing in the presence of the originary Λόγος

c) Knowledge, the true (i.e., the unconcealed), and the Λόγος. The revealing gathering of the concealed toward unconcealment in true λόγος as the essence of knowledge (σοφία). The demand and imposition of the Λόγος

§ 8 The human, the Λόγος, and the essence and truth of being. Final part of the interpretation of saying 112

a) The Λόγος as ἓν πάντα: the originary forgathering presence. On the sameness of the Λόγος and being. The human as safekeeper of being and the relation of being toward the human: the divining of the event

b) Summary of the guidelines and perspectives according to which the Λόγος, which has yet to unfold inceptually, is to be thought. The truth of being and the fate of metaphysical thinking

Supplement

Editor’s afterword

German to English Glossary

English to German Glossary

Heraclitus (GA 55) [GA App]

Ereignis