The quiet power of the possible: The Modal Notion of Possibility in Unveiling as Clearing and the Problem of Alétheia as Truth

Abstract

In a passage from his text presented in 1964, Das Ende der Philosophie und die Aufgabe des Denkens,  Martin Heidegger revisits, within the context of the thought of Ereignis, a conceptual issue regarding the translation of Aletheia [ἀλήθεια] as Truth. This passage is well-known in the literature. In it, the philosopher refers to the fragility of translating the term and, in a footnote, he draws on a statement from §44 of the 1927 work, Sein und Zeit. What follows is an examination of Heidegger’s reference to his early work, as well as his suggestion, which, when articulated with the internal theoretical context of the 1964 text, refines the understanding of the term and proposes a connection between different phases of his thought. This interpretation implies a connection, through the notion of possibility, with issues already developed during the Being and Time period; conceptual elements from the thought of the turn [Kehre]; and, as we will see, a certain continuity with discussions raised in this late text by the philosopher. Finally, it is not possible to conclude the proper translation of Aletheia as truth without clearly understanding, within the horizon of meaning, what remains comprehended by the concept of unveiling [Unverborgenheit] in its intimate connection with freedom and, above all, articulated by the modal category of possibility in its fundamental qualification.