γινώςκειν ὅτι σοφόν ἐστι πάντων κεχωρισμένον.1 "However many men I heard the statements of, none has managed to recognize that being wise, the σοφόν [philosophy], is something separated off from everything else." In Latin, what is separated off is called absolutum, something that is at its own proper place, or more precisely, something that first forms its own proper place for itself. Plato says in one of his major dialogues2 that the difference between the philosophizing human being and the one who is not philosophizing is the difference between being awake (ὕπάρ) and sleeping (ὄναρ).The non-philosophizing human being, including the scientific human being, does indeed exist, but he or she is asleep. Only philosophizing is wakeful Dasein, is something totally other, something that stands incomparably on its own with respect to everything else. Hegel (to name a philosopher of the modern era) designates philosophy as the inverted world. He means that compared to what is normal for the normal human being, philosophy looks like something upside down, yet is fundamentally that orientation which is proper to Dasein itself. This may suffice not as an authoritative proof, but merely as an indication that I am not inventing a concept of philosophy here, nor arbitrarily presenting you with some private opinion.
Philosophy is something primordial that stands on its own, yet for this very reason it is not something isolated. Rather, as something extreme and primary, it is already comprehensive of everything, so that any application of it comes too late and is a misunderstanding.
At issue is nothing less than regaining this originary dimension of occurrence in our philosophizing Dasein, in order once again to 'see' all things more simply, more vividly, and in a more sustained manner.
1. H. Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. Ed. W. Kranz (Berlin, 1934ff. ). Fifth edition. Vol. 1, Frgm. 108.
2. Plato, Res Publica. Platonis Opera. Ed. I. Burnet (Oxford, 1902ff.). Vol. 4, 476 c f., 520c, 533c.