At the end of 1928 Husserl retired as Professor of Philosophy at Freiburg and Heidegger, who had once been a favorite pupil, took his place. Husserl had apparently expected that Heidegger would carry on his work of trying to find certainty through the so-called 'scientific' investigation of ideas; but during the time that Heidegger had been away from Freiburg he had published Being and Time and had become famous in his own right at least amongst students; although no one seemed able to say very clearly what the book was about. Indeed Heidegger seemed to be saying (so I gathered) that 'certainty' could not be put into words: it was to do with an attitude, a state of mind, a performance: words were good for saying what things were not; they were not good for saying what things were. I thought -- Well, yes, certainly, I have come across this sort of thing before.

Heidegger was due to give his inaugural lecture at Freiburg in July 1929. There was excitement amongst students at the prospect of this lecture: it was felt - as it had been about Einstein ten years previously - that there was something liberating about Heidegger's vision of what was beyond the bounds of conventional thought. I said to Franz, who had tried to read Being and Time, 'But how will Heidegger lecture if he does not trust in words! Will he come on and be silent? Will he make noises no one understands?'

Franz said, 'People seem to feel they understand. Perhaps this also says something about the nature of words.'

Bruno wrote to say that he was coming from Berlin to hear the lecture: Heidegger's fame had spread. I thought - Bruno and Franz will meet! What I feel about this cannot easily be put into words.

Pp. 114-5

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