Besinnung (Mindfulness) (GA 66) | 75
power in affirming ways.21 In Besinnung, however, he begins to question even his phrase “disempowerment of φύσις”: “Earlier considerations (“Contributions”) speak of the disempowerment of φύσις. Thus inceptively and properly ‘power’— in what sense?” (GA 66: 188). At the same time, he still seems to want to justify or make sense of it: “The power of φύσις ... is its being without power” (GA 66: 188)
A generous reading of Heidegger would require that we distinguish different meanings of power, that we distinguish the power of beings from the “power” of being that in the first beginning is so “powerful” that it compels a stance against it. Thus, being as φύσις will lead to machination and is the source of machination, a source, however, that somehow disengages itself from what it gives rise to. Indeed, Heidegger goes so far as to say: “In leaving beingness to beings beyng ... refuses itself and preserves itself for the unique gifting—without trace and without power” (GA 66: 200).
I already pointed out that although beyng is without power, for Heidegger, it nevertheless has “sovereignty.” I also announced that this notion is tied to the notions of poverty and dignity. In section 65a, he writes: “Sovereignty in the inceptive sense does not need power; it reigns out of the dignity, that simple superiority of essential poverty that, in order to be, does not need something below or against itself” (GA 66: 193). As far as I know, this is the first passage in which he speaks of poverty. In Geschichte des Seyns (History of Beyng), which gathers texts from 1938 to 1940, the notion of poverty appears increasingly together with that of dignity,22 and both will remain basic words for Heidegger in the 1940s along with the notion of Gelassenheit (releasement). The same is true for the word Langmut (forbearance, patience, literally “long-animity”),23 and other words ending in - mut (courage or mood).24 In Besinnung, he pairs Langmut with Starkmut (“strength of spirit”). He writes: “The decision remains whether the human being can experience the plight that is prepared in advance by such need, whether he knows that strength of spirit [Starkmut] and forbearance [Langmut] that essentially surpasses all power, vio lence, and entrenchment” (GA 66: 85).25
All these new words that I have been emphasizing bear attunements that begin to emerge in Besinnung and will take more and more space in Heidegger’s poietic writings. In Langmut resonates a sense of time that is not pressured by outside events; in dignity and magnanimity resonates—in the context of poverty—a noble-mindedness that, again, is not disturbed by the hustle and bustle of common life; there is no need, no plight in the poverty and dignity of beyng. This is a different attitude from the emphasis on the acknowledgment of the lack of plight characterizing Contributions, as well as from the predominance of restraint (Verhaltenheit), which suggest tension, sustaining, and enduring a lack.
It is noteworthy that in Besinnung, the new attunements appear at the same time that Heidegger pushes his reading of Nietzsche to the extreme. He combines his interpretation of the will to power as a will to will with accounts of the
21 Heidegger speaks, for instance, of dispositional power (GA 65: 21–22; C: 19). See also section 18, in which he reflects on power and powerlessness.
22 Heidegger speaks of Armut (poverty) in GA 66: 105–107, 110, 111, 116, 117, 119, 123, 217, 219, and of Würde, 74, 135, 141, 171, 180, 211.
23 Because -mut has the sense of “mood,” Langmut literally means “long mood” and Großmut “great mood,” and Starkmut “strong mood.” By itself the word Mut means courage. The word Langmut appears three times in Besinnung (GA 66: 85, 244, 375) and seven times in Geschichte des Seyns (GA 69: 31, 105, 109, 212), often together with Großmut (magnanimity).
24 Mut relates to Gemüt and the latter can mean mind, soul, disposition, feeling, and nature as when we say that someone has a good nature.
25 See also other uses of Langmut (GA 66: 244, 375).