THE END OF PHILOSOPHY
beings. The distinction is primally rather the presencing of Being itself whose origination is Appropriation. The original distinction can never be reached by going back behind the distinction of essentia and existentia, which underlies all metaphysics and which has its core in the essential character of the existentia. On the other hand, the metaphysical distinction itself—that means always, the distinction which structures and underlies all metaphysics—must first be experienced in its Origin, so that metaphysics becomes decisive as occurrence of the history of Being, and relinquishes the illusory form of a doctrine and an opinion, that is, of something produced by man.
The history of Being is neither the history of man and of humanity, nor the history of the human relation to beings and to Being. The history of Being is Being itself, and only Being. However, since Being claims human being for grounding its truth in beings, man is drawn into the history of Being, but always only with regard to the manner in which he takes his essence from the relation of Being to himself and, in accordance with this relation, loses his essence, neglects it, gives it up, grounds it, or squanders it.
The fact that man belongs to the history of Being only in the scope of his essence which is determined by the claim of Being, and not with regard to his existence, actions, and accomplishments within beings, signifies a restriction unique in its manner. This restriction can become evident as a distinction as often as Being itself allows what takes place to be known if man may venture his essence which has sunk into oblivion for him through the precedence of beings.
In the history of Being, Appropriation makes itself known to humanity at first as a transformation of the essence of truth. This could give rise to the opinion that the essential character of Being might be dependent upon the dominance of the actual concept of truth which guides the manner of human representational thinking, and thus the thinking of Being. But the possibilities of the actual concepts of truth are delineated in advance by the manner of the
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