Heidegger, the presocratics, and the history of being

Abstract

In this paper, I place Heidegger's interpretation of Prescocratic thought in the wider context of his critique of metaphysics and his conception of the history of being. The task which Heidegger puts before himself, I argue, is to return to the original Presocratic experience of being and to repeat it. Yet the repetition is neither for the sake of some historical research nor for an advance of classical scholarship. Those are the Presocratics, the first western thinkers, to whom Heidegger ultimately turns for help in solving the problems of contemporary philosophy and reversing the course of modern history, so that the "dead end" can be replaced by a new beginning.