Ge-stell u. entbergen

My children tell the story of how we walked on the grounds of the great dinosaur museum after a rain.  A small piece of shale had slid down to the path.  I turned it over to expose the most exquisite fossil (I shall not describe it.)  When all had seen it, I placed it down, again not exposed, a mere piece of stone, unmarked, on the edge of the path.

In the early days of science, it would have been a curiosity to display in our collection.  In the hey-day of paleontology, who knows - something to put forward in an article in a journal? Photographed. Sketched. Catalogued.

But Heidegger cannot account for the other great man of Goettingen: Gauss.  Gauss did not try to be the first in everything, to have it all to ihis credit.  Much of what he discovered, others would be left to re-discover.

In the Heidegger account, Darwin ought to have come home with all his drawings and notes and specimens and then when he had it all pieced together, had a laugh, and then headed off to church with his wife where he might engage in genuine exchanges with his fellows.

And what of the poet?  Should the best of Hoelderlin have gone unpublished?  Should Brod have burned Kafka?  What was the rush of Heidegger to protect his papers as the French forces approached?

Noteworthy is that the volume of GA with the Tecknik essay also has no index.  This makes it a nuisance for readers to track down where Arendt got her bit on apparatus and where the bit on Heissenberg (look at the date Heidegger cites - 1954 - is that not the year that Born was finally recognized?)  I will set that staright over at phil.aule-browser.com/arendt.htm

Has Heidegger told us why he cannot resist publishing?  What could be more Ge-stell than the fine binding and flawless printing of yet another exemplar of a book. You can see it there, in the Klostermann window, on display.  Heidegger did not lug about the fonts with him, as did Kepler.

Why was it not enough for the Greeks to have gone on repeating Homer?  Can Heidegger not see the organized scrolls of Alexandria as Bestände? Feu, said Pascal.