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Heidegger Lecture 2 and 3 of What Is Called Thinking

Satisfactory Essays

Sarah Oliver
Presentation
Heidegger
April 19, 2012

In Lecture I of Part II, Heidegger points out that asking the question of “What is called thinking” can be incredibly diverse and complicated because there is not just one explanation for the question, although at a glance it seems pretty simple to explain. He stresses four ways in which the question can be posed. The first way asks what is designated by the word “thinking,” the second asks what logic has to do with thought, the third asks what the prerequisites are for thinking, and the final question is what actually commands and provokes us to think? It seems that thinking is like baking a cake for Heidegger, no ingredient is more important than the other, just like no question …show more content…

When the question: “What is called thinking?” is reconsidered in Heidegger terms, it might better be read as asking, “What is it that invites or instructs or directs us into thinking?” or in Heidegger’s own words, “What is it that appeals to us to think?” By asking this question, the thinker becomes the object of the action, the one who is invited into thinking and the action is less about defining what thinking is than in discovering how it is that the pathway into thinking is opened for us.
In Lecture II, Heidegger focuses his attention on the word thinking and what is considered thought provoking. Thinking is a telling and speaking of language. Literature is often used as a medium for both science and poetry and for that reason there is some confusion between what is actually thought provoking. The three should be separated. There is science, there is thought, and there is poetry and the difference between poetry and science is that poetic work is a work of our language much like thinking is, although thinking does not make poetry. Thought and poesy are related because they never just use language as a means of expression, they are the actual makers of language and the final speech.
We view science as thinking because we are immersed in it throughout our everyday lives. Car companies are trying to make cars more efficient and doctors are trying to figure out how to cure cancer. We are

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