Nietzsche's Übermensch, says Heidegger, attempted to leap over the being of things (Sein des Seienden). Unfortunately he never quite made the leap, failing as he did to ask the authentic question of being (Seinsfrage). Nietzsche, as has the whole of the metaphysical tradition, attempted to use the categories of the old metaphysics, culled as they were from things (Seinendes) and not from being (Sein). And then metaphysics attempted to apply these categores to being itself (Sein selbst). This was, Heidegger insists, the actual theme and the real meaning of the lecture which he gave in 1929, namely, "Was ist Metaphysik?" All the various sciences ask about things of different kinds (Seiende), and falsely imagine that philosophy simply takes all these things into account and nothing else. But as Heidegger says in Zur Seinsfrage, it is exactly this nothing, the "nothing" that is totally other than things, that he lecture "Was ist Metaphysik?" asked after. It is the "nothing" that is totally other than things, and to which the Dasein of man is attached, which is inquired after.

Thus Heidegger point out, primarily in response to the charge of nihilism which was leveled against him as a result of his "Was ist Metaphysik?" lecture, that only by having already overcome nihilism was it possible for him to discuss "nothing" in the 1929 lecture in the way in which he did. Only if he had already overcome nihilism could he have considered that "nothing" which was in the beginning identical with being. As Heidegger insists, clearly this "nothing" is hardly something negative (nicht Nichtiges). It is the most positive. It is after all the same as being, the being that is other than things.

¶ 7:08 AM