Jul 5, 2025 10:15 PM
"In The Word of Nietzsche: 'God is Dead,' Heidegger claims thought must move away from emphasising objective conceptualisation to take seriously alternative, non-conceptual modes of thinking. As he puts it, 'thinking begins only when we have come to know that reason, glorified for centuries, is the most stiff-necked adversary of thought' (1977: 61).
Similarly, in What is Called Thinking?, Heidegger claims being is not capable of being understood if we start with the notion that only conceptual thought counts as knowledge (1968: 179). Heidegger wants to not only open thought to alternative, non-conceptual modes of thinking, but to also get thought to recognise these alternatives are legitimate and justified. As being 'is' universal, fluid, dynamic, and historical so too must thought move in these directions. Only by recognising, opening itself to, and taking seriously non conceptual thinking will thought be able to engage with being on being's own terms. Only non-philosophy, which does not entail a valorisation of science or any other so-called humanity, but genuine, meditative thinking, can open thought to being in the way that does not impose itself on being and reveals being as being reveals itself to thought (Krzystof 2008 : 251)
In other words, Heidegger's view is that 'being' cannot be understood solely through conceptual thought, with which he identifies reason. Non-conceptual ways of thinking are also requisite. Being is too 'fluid, dynamic, and historical' to be captured, penetrated, by static, inflexible conceptual thinking. This is hardly unambiguously clear but Heidegger's broad point is one that we can make some sense of."---- https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/que...f-thinking
"The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking."--Heidegger
Thus does Heidegger indict us all of the mistake of not thinking when we think we are. What have we mistaken FOR thinking? Many things it seems. Opining a point of view. Repeating a convincing talking point or argument. Logically inferring the unknown from the known. And Reason, that darling and much lauded child prodigy of the Enlightenment. Reason in the sense of shuffling around categories and generalizations in the attempt to arrive at something called Truth. Of conjuring up thru words and sentences a proposition or set of propositions that pertain universally and absolutely. Philosophers are perhaps the best at accomplishing this feat, often proclaiming as truth their own elaborate model or map of Reality. But how many of these have fallen by the wayside or faded away into some obsolete historical epoch. The idea of absolute Truth nowadays has itself become suspect--an ego-empowering if not totalitarian attempt to turn a very contingent and morphing reality into a reliable machine of explanations and rules and principles. The reduction of Being from infinitely mysterious and self-evident presence to a manipulable system of abstractions. This unfortunately is not thinking.
Thinking begins by questioning what was before assumed to be unconditionally true and unquestionable. As Nietzsche demonstrated for us there is definitely a heretical or subversive element to it. God is indeed dead. Thinking in this way draws its power from the innate historicity and yet universality of Being. And so it reveals the latest most contemporary state of our time-- a time where everything is questioned and so felt to be illusory and even enslaving. The Enlightenment promised us all that by building metanarratives and collecting knowlege we could free ourselves from ignorance and delusion. But it has instead only led us out of one cage and into another. The cage of abstract conceptualization/theory as Truth. The cage of the well-explained and controlled and dogmatic.
Thinking otoh takes these venerated though dead structures and surgically dissects them to our utter chagrin. That what we felt to be unassailable Truth is just consensual fist bumps and comforting mantras. Thinking reintroduces us to the Being that Reason has alienated us all from--the presence of the Real as concealed behind the veil of our illusions. It is rude and relentless and shocking and blasphemous. We must relearn how to think again. To get at the core of what is real and utterly illuminating unadorned with the gawdy regalia of our beloved narratives.
An analogy: Thinking is not the logic or rationality or plotline of the dream. It is the way of waking ourselves up out of the dream. It does not heed the rules of the dream. A man trying to wake himself out of the dream screams and thrashes around inside the dream. To the dreamed people he may appear as an enfant terrible or a madman. This is because thinking answers to a higher calling--the epiphany of being in the dream--the waking up inside of Being itself.
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"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid." ~ Bertrand Russell (“Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel,” pp. 178-179)
"The average man never really thinks from end to end of his life. The mental activity of such people is only a mouthing of cliches. What they mistake for thought is simply a repetition of what they have heard. My guess is that well over 80 percent of the human race goes through life without having a single original thought."~ H. L. Mencken
Similarly, in What is Called Thinking?, Heidegger claims being is not capable of being understood if we start with the notion that only conceptual thought counts as knowledge (1968: 179). Heidegger wants to not only open thought to alternative, non-conceptual modes of thinking, but to also get thought to recognise these alternatives are legitimate and justified. As being 'is' universal, fluid, dynamic, and historical so too must thought move in these directions. Only by recognising, opening itself to, and taking seriously non conceptual thinking will thought be able to engage with being on being's own terms. Only non-philosophy, which does not entail a valorisation of science or any other so-called humanity, but genuine, meditative thinking, can open thought to being in the way that does not impose itself on being and reveals being as being reveals itself to thought (Krzystof 2008 : 251)
In other words, Heidegger's view is that 'being' cannot be understood solely through conceptual thought, with which he identifies reason. Non-conceptual ways of thinking are also requisite. Being is too 'fluid, dynamic, and historical' to be captured, penetrated, by static, inflexible conceptual thinking. This is hardly unambiguously clear but Heidegger's broad point is one that we can make some sense of."---- https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/que...f-thinking
"The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking."--Heidegger
Thus does Heidegger indict us all of the mistake of not thinking when we think we are. What have we mistaken FOR thinking? Many things it seems. Opining a point of view. Repeating a convincing talking point or argument. Logically inferring the unknown from the known. And Reason, that darling and much lauded child prodigy of the Enlightenment. Reason in the sense of shuffling around categories and generalizations in the attempt to arrive at something called Truth. Of conjuring up thru words and sentences a proposition or set of propositions that pertain universally and absolutely. Philosophers are perhaps the best at accomplishing this feat, often proclaiming as truth their own elaborate model or map of Reality. But how many of these have fallen by the wayside or faded away into some obsolete historical epoch. The idea of absolute Truth nowadays has itself become suspect--an ego-empowering if not totalitarian attempt to turn a very contingent and morphing reality into a reliable machine of explanations and rules and principles. The reduction of Being from infinitely mysterious and self-evident presence to a manipulable system of abstractions. This unfortunately is not thinking.
Thinking begins by questioning what was before assumed to be unconditionally true and unquestionable. As Nietzsche demonstrated for us there is definitely a heretical or subversive element to it. God is indeed dead. Thinking in this way draws its power from the innate historicity and yet universality of Being. And so it reveals the latest most contemporary state of our time-- a time where everything is questioned and so felt to be illusory and even enslaving. The Enlightenment promised us all that by building metanarratives and collecting knowlege we could free ourselves from ignorance and delusion. But it has instead only led us out of one cage and into another. The cage of abstract conceptualization/theory as Truth. The cage of the well-explained and controlled and dogmatic.
Thinking otoh takes these venerated though dead structures and surgically dissects them to our utter chagrin. That what we felt to be unassailable Truth is just consensual fist bumps and comforting mantras. Thinking reintroduces us to the Being that Reason has alienated us all from--the presence of the Real as concealed behind the veil of our illusions. It is rude and relentless and shocking and blasphemous. We must relearn how to think again. To get at the core of what is real and utterly illuminating unadorned with the gawdy regalia of our beloved narratives.
An analogy: Thinking is not the logic or rationality or plotline of the dream. It is the way of waking ourselves up out of the dream. It does not heed the rules of the dream. A man trying to wake himself out of the dream screams and thrashes around inside the dream. To the dreamed people he may appear as an enfant terrible or a madman. This is because thinking answers to a higher calling--the epiphany of being in the dream--the waking up inside of Being itself.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid." ~ Bertrand Russell (“Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel,” pp. 178-179)
"The average man never really thinks from end to end of his life. The mental activity of such people is only a mouthing of cliches. What they mistake for thought is simply a repetition of what they have heard. My guess is that well over 80 percent of the human race goes through life without having a single original thought."~ H. L. Mencken