The thing

pp. 566-576

in: William Richardson, Heidegger, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1963

Abstract

We have spoken much of foundational thinking as something other than the presentative, pro-posing thought characteristic of the metaphysical tradition it is meant to overcome. The form of thought which up to the present the author has most fully developed is the process of retrieve, as applied to the interpretation of other thinkers. We have had hints of a different style of non-presentative thought, such as in the analysis of a work of art (1935) and more recently in "The Pathway" (1949), but no full treatment of this other style in recent years. Now in a public lecture, entitled "The Thing," before the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich (1950), Heidegger explores a way to think Being through "things" of common experience.¹