Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Martin Heidegger, "What is Metaphysics?" Part 3b

III. Responding to the Question

Holding itself out into the nothing, Da-sein is in each case already beyond beings as a whole (in a state of transcendence, where to transcend is to be held out into the nothing.) If Da-sein were not doing this, it could never be related to beings nor even to itself. Without the original revelation of the nothing, there is no selfhood and no freedom.

So, the nothing makes possible the openedness of beings in respect to human existence. It isn't some opposing concept overagainst that of beings, but, rather, it originally belongs to their essential unfolding. In the Being of beings the nihilation of the nothing occurs.

Stated again, the nothing is the origin of negation, not vice versa. This shatters the bow of classical metaphysics and frees truth from the cage made from its materials in the course of the Enlightenment's lust for certainty. The destiny of its reign in philosophy is thereby decided. Its categorical logic disintegrates in the turbulence of a more original questioning. Metaphysics is dead, long live metaphysics!

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