By way of introduction, many things were referred to which could serve as an aid to a better understanding of the lecture, and thus facilitate the preparation and anticipate the seminar's intention. These references already touched upon the questions and themes which in the meetings to follow were partly made explicit and partly determined the path of the seminar while remaining in the background.
On account of the peculiarity of what was discussed, this seminar was an experiment. It was essentially different from the seminars which Heidegger has given in the course of his academic career. Expressed more superficially, this difference is already evident in the fact that Heidegger's own text forms the basis of the seminar, not a text of metaphysics. In the attempt to discuss what was said in the lecture, something more daring than the lecture itself became evident. The lecture's risk lies in the fact that it speaks in propositional statements about something essentially incommensurable with this kind of saying. However, we must heed the fact that it is not a matter of mere statements, but of an answering prepared by questions, an answering which attempts to adapt itself to the matter with which it is concerned. Everything—statements, questions, and answers—presupposes