reveals the concealed whither of thrownness. We saw in §15 that the finitude of disclosing lies in the fact that ‘the “whence” and “whither” [of disclosing’s that it is] remain in darkness [im Dunkel]’ (SZ: 134). By considering the darkness of this whither, I will—finally—be able to bring to the self-concealing of being its proper brightness.
The whence of thrownness is the ground or origin of the ‘throw’ of thrownness, from which Dasein is thrown. The whither of thrownness is the destination of the ‘throw’: that to which Dasein is thrown. Dasein is thrown into, and so to, its being as disclosing.1 To say that this is concealed is to say that disclosing—third-plank unconcealing—is concealed. But this is manifestly not the case. Dasein’s disclosing is always a self-disclosing; it always grasps itself. Further, we have been discussing disclosing at some length. The claim cannot be that disclosing is simply concealed but must be that it is concealed in some special respect. I will argue that it is ultimately concealed, and that it is so because we cannot grasp what it is rather than.2
As we know, the rather than of disclosing is lēthē. Lēthē is the absence of the illumination of Dasein’s disclosing. As we saw in §12, lēthē is only ever encountered privatively, in the comparison of our openness with animals’ captivation, or liminally, in the mood of angst. As Heidegger explains in ‘What is Metaphysics?’, the nothing is repelling (abweisend) or nihilating (nichtend) (WM: 90/GA9: 114). It resists Dasein’s encounter. Rather than showing itself as wholly other to disclosing, it ‘is encountered at one with entities as a whole’ (WM: 90/GA9: 113). These entities pick up the reflection of the nothing’s deflected alterity, showing themselves as strange: the nothing ‘manifests these entities in their full but heretofore concealed strangeness as what is radically other—with respect to the nothing’ (WM: 90/GA9: 114). The nothing or lēthē shows up
1 Recall that Dasein is thrown into existence (SZ: 276) or the da (SZ: 135, 148, 297, 413); it is ‘delivered over’ (überantworten) to its being (SZ: 42, 135), itself (SZ: 144, 192, 284, 383), itself in its being (SZ: 189), existence (SZ: 276), and the da (SZ: 148). Some people take Dasein to be thrown into nature, the environment, or its body. For an argument against this sort of interpretation, see my entry on ‘Thrownness (Geworfenheit)’ in The Cambridge Heidegger Lexicon, ed. Wrathall.
2 I argue the same more generally in my ‘Situation and Limitation: Making Sense of Heidegger on Thrownness’.