The second reason we attach such great importance to SG 1 lies in the fact that in no other work does Heidegger so openly make use of the mystical tradition. The pivotal lecture in this book (Lecture V, SG, 63 if.) is an “elucidation” (Erläterung) not of Hölderlin but of the verse from the mystical poet Angelus Silesius, “The Rose Is Without Why.” By means of this verse, Heidegger will show us the necessity of a “leap” (Satz) out of the Principle of Ground as it has been understood by metaphysics into a new and deeper understanding of it. This leap is a leap away from the metaphysician’s understanding of “why’’ and “because,’’ represented by Leibniz, towards the mystic’s understanding of it, represented by Angelus Silesius. It is in this work along with Gelassenheit that Versényi 2 claims Heidegger’s thought enters into a third and decisive stage which disrupts the balance or “dialectic of correspondence” between Being and Dasein of which he and Löwith speak. In this work, Versényi claims, the capacity of Dasein for a dynamic response to Being is destroyed. Dasein becomes a humble, passive suppliant waiting upon Being’s next inscrutable move. Thus a close study of this text is essential if we are to evaluate this critique of Heidegger’s later and seemingly mystical writings.
- GA10 Der Satz vom Grund. 3. Auflage. Pfullingen: Verlag Günther Neske, 1965.[↩]
- Versényi, Laszlo. Heidegger, Being and Truth. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965.[↩]