If we enter into the total and original meaning of the question, "What is Philosophy?" then our questioning has, through its historical origin, found a direction into an historical future. We have found a path. It leads from the actuality of the Greek world down to us, if not, indeed, beyond us. We are--if we persist in this question--traveling on a clearly indicated path. Nevertheless, we still have no guarantee thereby that we are immediately enabled to pursue this path in the right way. We cannot even determine at once at which point on this path we are standing today. For a long time we have been accustomed to characterize the question of what something is as a question about its nature. The question about the nature of something awakens at those times when that, whose nature is being questioned, has become obscure and confused, when at the same time the relationship of men to what is being questioned has become uncertain or has even been shattered.

¶ 5:58 AM