The path of thought does not have a given beginning and end, but is constantly running. We are already on the road, we are on the road, and we will be on the road in the future. From the past to the present to the future, thoughts have been on the road. This shows the eternity of the road's operation.
■ | Peng Fuchun
For Heidegger, the road is not closed, but open. This means that the mind is always on the road, and it is also in the road. Thoughts are on the way, wandering. Heidegger said, "When we are in the midst of the path, the nature of the mind is revealed to us." We are on the road. What does this mean? We are also in the midst of many roads, between many different roads. This has not yet determined an unavoidable and therefore perhaps the only path. We are in the middle of the road, so we must pay special attention to the place of the road we have traveled in our steps. That is to say, the path of thought does not have a given beginning and end, but is constantly running. We are already on the road, we are on the road, and we will be on the road in the future. From the past to the present to the future, thoughts have been on the road. This shows the eternity of the road's operation.
But the significance of the road in Heidegger is clearly profound. In fact, not only does Heidegger's thought manifest itself as a path, but the theme of Heidegger's thought is the path of thought itself.
What is the Tao itself? Or is it the original meaning of the path? Heidegger said: "Perhaps the word 'road' is the original word of a language, persuading the contemplative. The dominant word for Lao Tzu's poetic thought is called Tao and means the 'authentic' path. But because it is easy for people to externally conceive of the road as a road connecting two places, they hastily think that the word 'road' of our gate is not suitable for what the road is named for. Thus, the Tao is translated into reason, spirit, meaning, and logos. ”
Heidegger goes on to say, "But the Tao may be the path that drives everything, the so-called all that is this: from there we may first think, reason, spirit, meaning, and logos are true, that is, from their own nature. If we allow these names to return to their unspoken and able to give way, then perhaps in the word 'way', in the word Word, there are hidden secrets of all the secrets of the thinking of speech. Perhaps this is where the mysterious power of the ruling methods of today comes from, namely that these methods, regardless of their effectiveness, are only branches of a great hidden river. The river is the path that drives everything and opens its own path for everything. Everything is the road. ”
In response to the various translations of Laozi's Tao Te Ching in Western scholars, Heidegger criticized it. At the same time, he also offered his own suggestions for the translation of the Tao. Whether his criticisms and suggestions are correct or not, we will leave aside. We are only focusing on Heidegger's understanding of the meaning of the road itself. In this regard, we also need a very in-depth and meticulous analysis.
Heidegger objected to the general view of the road. This view simply captures the road as a link between the two places. This view can be seen as an instrumental view of the way. According to this view, roads are a means of serving an end. People walk up and down the road, not for the sake of the road itself, but for the purpose of reaching the destination from the point of departure, and from the next place of departure to the next, and so on. Once the end is achieved, the means can be discarded and forgotten. According to Heidegger, this instrumental view of the way does not cut to the true nature of the road. #大道哲学 #
The author is a professor of philosophy at Wuhan University, and is the author of a series of academic monographs "Five Books of Guoxue" ("On Guoxue", "On Laozi", "On Confucius", "On Huineng", "On Confucianism and Taoism", all published and distributed by the People's Publishing House). This article is excerpted from "Heidegger and Lao Tzu on the Tao", and the title is added by the editor.