In the Parmenides lectures, Heidegger argues that "the open, to which every being is liberated as if to its freedom, is being itself". And it is "the open," he says, that "first lets beings emerge and come to presence as beings". "Man alone sees this open" and "gets a glimpse of this open while comporting himself, as he always does, to beings, whether these beings are understood in the Greek sense as what emerges and comes to presence, or in the Christian sense as ens creatum , or in the modern sense as objects". Indeed: "In his comportment to beings, man in advance sees the open by dwelling within the opening and opened project of being".

However, we see the opening of the open "without beholding it". "The Open [i.e., the ground itself] becomes an object, and is thus twisted around toward human beings." As a predominant characteristic of our time, this objectifying tendency, reducing the dimensionality of the visual field, is called "enframing" (das Gestell), and, according to Heidegger, it effects a corresponding reduction (Entschränkung) in the lighting, the presencing of which first opened up a field for our vision: "Enframing blocks [verstellt] the shining-forth and holding sway of truth [i.e., the moment, or event, of aletheic unconcealment by grace of which there is a visual field]." In his work on Nietzsche, Heidegger even asserts that, because of the enframing of the open dimensionality that takes place in the modern world, "the whole field of vision [Gesichts-kreis] has been wiped away."

The Philosopher's Gaze
David Michael Levin

¶ 5:25 PM