REFLECTIONS

Heidegger from his 1927-1928
lectures on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

"Philosophy belongs to the most original of human endeavors...It is
precisely these original human endeavors that have their constancy in
never losing their questionable character and in thus returning to
the same point and finding there their sole source of energy. The
constancy of these endeavors does not consist in the continued
regularity of advancing, in the sense of a so-called progress.
Progress exists only in the realm of what is ultimately unimportant
for human existence. Philosophy does not evolve in the sense of
progress. Rather, philosophy is an attempt at developing and
clarifying the same few problems; philosophy is the independent,
free, and thoroughgoing struggle of human existence with the darkness
that can break out at any time in that existence. And every
clarification opens new abysses. Thus the stagnation and decline of
philosophy do not mean not-going-forward-anymore; rather they point
to having forgotten the center. Therefore every philosophical renewal
is an awakening in returning to the same point."