Contributions to the Coming to Be of Greek Beginnings: Heidegger's Inceptive Thinking

In the Beiträge zur Philosophie Heidegger speaks of a “hidden history” (verborgene Geschichte) of which, in the XIX c., the figures of Hölderlin, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche would have been symptomatic. Such a history would by no means be secret in the sense of unknown, yet remains unreleased in its essential implications, latent, as if beneath the threshold of ordinary experience. In the course of such considerations, Heidegger asks: “does this history as the ground of Dasein continue to be inaccessible to us, not because it is past, but because it is still too futural [zukünftig] for us?” In light of this question the essay develops a renewed understanding (in fact, a nascent experience) of “our” history and of ourselves in our temporal openness. This research undertakes to cast light on that which remains unacknowledged in our dominant discourses, historical, philosophical, and anthropological alike