This lecture explores the concept of thinking and Being, discussing the human condition and the relationship between humanity and technology. It argues that humanity has forgotten the question of Being and that a new understanding of language and thought is necessary. The lecture also touches on the idea of Ereignis, or the event of Being, and its significance in understanding the human condition.
Martin Heidegger — 1 recording in the archive.
What does thinking mean? We get to what thinking means when we think ourselves. In order to succeed in such an attempt, we have to be ready to learn thinking. As soon as we start learning, we have already agreed that we are not yet able to think. But the human being is considered to be the being that can think. And rightly so. For the human being is the rational living being. But reason, the ratio, unfolds in thinking. As the rational living being, the human being must be able to think, if only he wills it. But perhaps the human being wants to think and cannot do it. Perhaps, in this desire to think, he wants too much and can therefore do too little. The human being can think insofar as he has the possibility of doing so. Yet this possibility does not guarantee that we are capable of it. For to be capable of something means to let it into our presence according to its essence, and steadfastly guard this admission. Yet we are capable only of what we incline toward, what we are drawn to... as we let it in. Truly, we incline only toward that which has already, of its own accord, inclined toward us—toward us in our essence—by turning toward that essence. Through this inclination, our essence is laid claim to. Inclination is an address to us. This address speaks to us in our essence, calls us forth into our essence, and thus holds us within it. To hold means, properly, to guard. What holds us in our essence holds us only so long as we ourselves retain what holds us. We retain it when we do not let it slip from memory. Memory is the gathering of thought. Gathered upon what? Upon what holds us in our essence, insofar as we also give it thought. In what sense must we think of what holds us? Insofar as it is, by its very nature, what calls for thought. When we think of it, we give it the gift of remembrance. We offer it this remembrance because we incline toward it as the address of our essence. Only when we incline toward what itself calls for thought are we capable of thinking. To enter into this thinking, we, for our part, must learn to think. What is learning? We learn by bringing our doing and…