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FINK: One can also subsume steering under movement. But with Heraclitus, the steering of lightning is that which stands face to face with all movement in entities like the lightning stands face to face with that which shows itself in its light. Thus, steering does not have the character of being moved like entities, but rather the character of bringing movement forth in entities. Add to this that steering, which concerns τὰ πάντα, is no steering of individual things, but of the quintessential whole of entities. {GA 15: 24} The phenomenon of steering a ship is only a jumping off place for the thought which thinks the bringing-forth of the whole of entities in the articulate jointed-whole. As the captain, in the movement of the sea and winds to which the ship is exposed, brings a course to the movement of the ship, so the steering bringing-forth-to-appearance of lightning gives to all entities not only their outline but also their thrust. The steering bringing-forth-to-appearance is the more original movement that brings to light the whole of entities in their manifold being moved and at the same time withdraws into it.
HEIDEGGER: Can one bring the steering of Fr. 64 (οἰακίζει) and of Fr. 41 (ἐκυβέρνησε) into association with διὰ? If so, what then results as the meaning of διὰ?
FINK: In διὰ a transitive moment is thought.
HEIDEGGER: What meaning does "everything throughout everything" now have?
FINK: I would like to bring πάντα διὰ πάντων into association with πυρὸς τροπαί. The transformations of fire then imply that everything goes over into everything; so that nothing retains the definiteness of its character but, following an indiscernable wisdom, moves itself throughout by opposites.
HEIDEGGER: But why does Heraclitus then speak of steering?
FINK: The transformations of fire are in some measure a circular movement that gets steered by lightning, specifically by σοφόν. The movement, in which everything moves throughout everything through opposites, gets guided. {GA 15: 25}
HEIDEGGER: But may we here speak of opposites or of dialectic at all? Heraclitus knows neither something of opposites nor of dialectic.
FINK: True, opposites are not thematic with Heraclitus. But on the other hand, it cannot be contested that from the phenomenon he points to opposites. The movement in which everything is transformed throughout everything is a steered movement. For Plato, the helm is the analogy for exhibiting the power of rationality in the world.
HEIDEGGER: You wish to illustrate what steering means by naming that which steers, the λόγος. But what is steering as a phenomenon?
FINK: Steering as a phenomenon is the movement of a human who, for example, brings a ship into a desired course. It is the directing of movement which a rational human pursues.