Working, Dwelling, Thinking

Abstract

The lecture of August, 1951, entitled “Working, Dwelling, Thinking,” is effectively a prolongation of the meditation on “The Thing.” There we considered the thing-ness of the thing and saw that its presenc-ing consists in the gathering-together of polyvalent Being in and as this thing. In the present case, Heidegger, retaining this fundamental conception of the presenc-ing of things, takes advantage of a general discussion in Darmstadt on the theme “Man and Space” to explain how he conceives the “bringing-forth” of things. Structurally the analysis revolves around “working” and “dwelling,” whereas “thinking” seems thrown in for good measure. Since this is precisely our problem, however, we cannot afford to disregard it.