Lovitt: GEWISS - CERTAIN

Gewiss (certain) and Gewissheit (certainty) are allied to the verb wissen (to know). Both words carry a strong connotation of sureness, firmness-the sureness of that which is known. During the discussion that here ensues, the connotations of sureness should always be felt in the words "certain" and "certainty." In particular, "certainty" must never be taken to refer to some sort of merely intellectual certainty. For, as the discussion itself makes clear, the sure certainty here in question partakes of a being secure (n. 28 below). This note of "secureness" will here dominate Heidegger’s presentation at length, culminating in the discussion of "justice" (pp. 89 ff.), which, as here under consideration, involves "making secure." The words "knowing" (wissen), "self-knowing-itself" (Sich-selbstwissen), "gathering-of-knowing" (Ge-wissen [normally Gewissen, consciousness, conscience]), "conscious" (bewusst), and "consciousness" (Bewusstsein), which Heidegger will subsequently introduce here, all originate from the same root wiss that is found in gewiss and Gewissheit, and must be seen to lie closely within the sphere of meaning just pointed out for those words.

The most fundamental root meaning resident in wissen and its cognates is that of seeing, and this meaning should here also be kept in view, for it doubtless has a part in the meaning that Heidegger intends for truth -which is for him unconcealment — when he speaks of truth as certainty (Gewissheit) and of the true as the certain (das Gewisse) that is represented, i.e., set before. (QCT   p. 82)