through it, and so covers it to the end. Thought now is dialectical.
We readily see that all dialectic is by its nature logic, whether it develops as the dialectic of consciousness, or as Realdialektik and finally dialectical materialism. These, too, must always be a dialectic of objects, which always means objects of consciousness, hence consciousness of self (or one of its germinal forms). In dialectic, too, thinking is defined in terms of the proposition, the λόγος. But where thought encounters things that can no longer be apprehended by logic, those things which are by nature inapprehensible still are within the purview of logic—as a-logical, or no longer logical, or meta-logical (supra-logical).
Summary and Transition
We ask: "What is called thinking?" ask the question in a fourfold way:
1. What does the word "thinking" signify?
2. What does prevailing doctrine mean by thinking?
3. What is needed for us to accomplish thinking with essential rightness?
4. What is That which calls us into thinking?
These four questions, whose differences we cannot rehearse too often, are nonetheless one question. Their unity stems from the question listed in the fourth place. The fourth is the decisive one—it sets the standard. For this fourth question itself asks for the standard by which our nature, as a thinking nature, is to be measured. The third manner of asking is closest to the fourth. The fourth question inquires about That which commands us to think, That which entrusts thinking to us. The third question inquires about us, it asks us what resources we must rally in order to be capable of thinking. The third manner of asking the question has hardly been mentioned so far, and that will