The saying of Anaximander

pp. 514-526

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

Abstract

"The Saying of Anaximander" is another dialogue, sc. the re-trieve of a gnome that comes down to us from one of the earliest thinkers in the West.¹ Committed to writing during the enforced retirement of the de-Nazification period (1946), the essay deals with a theme that had been treated in the Freiburg courses as early as the summer semester of 1932 under the title "The Origin of Western Philosophy." Only the latest version of the author's reflections is available to the public. If this does not permit us to trace textually any development in Heidegger's thought, we know, at least, that what is said here is the result of long maturation. Hence the text, more than ordinarily obscure, is to be interpreted in terms of what we know of the development between 1932 and 1946. In this perspective, much of the inscrutability disappears. We polarize the content of the essay around two general remarks: A. Being, B. Thought.