Lovitt: Vergessenheit – Oblivion

Vergessenheit (oblivion) is not to be confused with the propensity to forget things or with a lapse of memory. In this essay, as for Heidegger generally, Vergessenheit is to be understood in the positive sense of the Greek lethe. It is that concealedness which is the source and foundation of all unconcealedness or truth (aletheia). There can be no unveiling unless there is concealment from whence it comes. The words of Heraclitus, physis kryptesthai philei — ordinarily translated “nature loves to hide” — would be rendered by Heidegger approximately as “concealedness is the very heart of coming into appearance” (from the transcript of the “Seminaire tenu au Thor en septembre 1969 par le Professeur Martin Heidegger,” p. 21).