GA 54
Parmenides
Parmenides
The Winter Semester 1942–43 lecture
course was originally announced under the title Parmenides and
Heraclitus. It contains a long meditation on ἀλήθεια by way of interpretation
of the famous poem of Parmenides.
Heidegger approaches ἀλήθεια from four different directions.
Ἀλήθεια means unconcealment. We can read unconcealment as un-concealment
and as un-concealment.
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When we read un-concealment, ἀλήθεια means the coming into
its own of truth and of concealment as sheltering this truth.
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When we read un-concealment, it becomes clear that the Greeks
discovered in the essential swaying (Wesung) and dynamic of
truth the negation of concealment.
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The third indication is the relation between ἀλήθεια and lèthè,
forgottenness. Since truth has to be wrestled from unconcealment,
it always risks falling back into forgottenness. Parmenides
names the unconcealment of being, and yet this simple
truth would soon be forgotten.
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The fourth indication names the relation between unconcealment
and clearing. Ἀλήθεια clears the open within this free
region; entities can come to presence in the way they look,
εἶδος. When we free ourselves form the presence of entities,
we may spring into the abground and recollect the truth of
being. We can then become aware of the difference between
being and entities.
The saying of Parmenides says the beginning of the still-concealed
withdrawal of the truth of being. It names the belonging together of
human beings and ἀλήθεια.