On the Way Towards Thought

Abstract

The shift in tone of the principle is decisive for placing in a new light the relation between the principle itself and the epochal dimension of thought. We must also ask ourselves if the principle that is thus being defined is still a principle in a grammatical and logical sense, or if we are not here dealing with something that is absolutely different from all this. We should indeed ask ourselves what is the effect caused by the de-finition of the principle in its essence, in reference to the modes of its essence, and to the modes of thought. The de-fining work which has led to an understanding of the Grund as Being and as abyss is the result of a theoretical analysis made by Heidegger, or perhaps we should call it a reflection. Now, however, we need to understand the peculiar nature of this meditation, in order to see how and to what extent it differs from the meditation of Leibniz. This problem raises some far-ranging and difficult philosophical issues. Let us try to list them: first of all, the question of the differences that mark the various kinds of thought; secondly, the relation between thought and the language by which it is expressed; then the hermeneutic situation that differently characterizes every single vision of the history of philosophy; and, finally, the way each philosopher has of understanding himself and the objective of his thought.