The Essence of Truth

progress is inessential to philosophy. It is always the beginning that remains decisive.

The driving force and restlessness of this history is the liberation of man to the essence of being: spirit, world-projection, worldview, a fundamental reality and mode of thought in which there is light and space for epic, development of the state, tragedy, cult architecture, sculpture, philosophy. Truth begins with the beginning of this history, and with this beginning man steps into un-truth in the most profound sense of not truth, i.e. hiddenness of beings. History is nothing in itself, but exists precisely and only where something is manifest; its limit and definiteness is precisely the hidden. What unhiddenness is can only be shown from hiddenness.

Λήθη, in the genuine Greek sense, is not a ‘lived experience’ (the Greeks, thank God, knew no such thing), but is a fateful occurrence that overtakes human beings, an occurrence, however, that pertains to all beings: they fall into hiddenness, they withdraw, they are simply absent.

While I do not advocate working with mere translations, I must also warn against thinking that command of the Greek language by itself guarantees an understanding of Plato or Aristotle. That would be just as foolish as thinking that because we understand German we already understand Kant or Hegel, which is certainly not the case.

The proper and original meaning of ἀγαθóν refers to what is good (suitable) for something, what can be put to use. ‘Good!’ means: it is done! it is decided! It does not have any kind of moral meaning: ethics has corrupted the fundamental meaning of this word.

Only in the rigour of questioning do we come into the vicinity of the unsayable.

Even so, what is viewed remains, as Plato says (341 c 5): ῥητὸν λὰρ οὐδαμῶϛ ἐστιν ὡϛ ἄλλα μαθήματα, ‘it is not sayable like other things we can learn’.

Untruth belongs to the essence of truth.

The philosopher must remain solitary, because this is what he is according to his nature. His solitude is not to be admired. Isolation is nothing to be wished for as such.

Truth is something greater than man. The latter is in the truth only if, and only in so far as, he masters his nature, holds himself within the unhiddenness of beings, and comports himself to this unhiddenness.