Abstract:
This thesis attempts to clarify what Heidegger meant by the term "thinking"
(Denken), where this ^'meanr is submitted in the double sense: firstly, in the sense of
what Heidegger intended by the use and exposition of this term that we find in his lecture
series. Was Heisst Denken?, where Heidegger quickly makes it clear that this intention is
to actually bring thinking on the way, viz. making provision for the leap into thinking,
and where this intention was carried out with the employment of a specific guiding
phrase. In the second sense, it is an attempt at clarifying the meaning of the term. But this
is not to say that we are here simply out to see how Heidegger defines the word
'*thinking." It is in fact precisely within such definitive discourse that thought dies out. It
is not merely be a case of defining a word, because this enterprise would be just as
shallow as much as it would be unworkable. It is for this reason that Heidegger decided
to establish for himself the task, not merely of explaining thinking as something to be
beheld at a distance, but rather of bringing thinking underway by means of his lecture,
proclaiming that, "Only the leap into the river tells us what is swimming. The question
'What is called thinking?' can never be answered by proposing a definition of the concept
thinking, and then diligently explaining what is contained in that definition." (WCT, 21)
This being Heidegger's intention, in order to understand Heidegger in his treatment of the
term thinking, it is clear that we must also undergo an experience with thinking. It is in
this spirit that the present work was written so as to collaborate the two senses of what
Heidegger meant by "thinking."
