The consequences for representational thinking – the thinking to which we are most accustomed – are fatal. If representational thinking is essentially oriented by the will – if thinking and willing are the selfsame – then thinking is essentially unable to attend heedfully to the matter it pursues. Precisely through willing its object, representational thinking renders the thing, as it is in itself, inaccessible. Phrased otherwise, representational thinking, through its representations, blinds itself to what befalls of its own accord: it shrouds the matter under its own representations. For the purposes of the conversation underway, this means that the more the participants will to bring about the essence of thinking, the more that essence slips from their grasps. Representational thinking is thus like Tantalus, whose very effort at reaching for the low hanging fruit precipitates its withdrawal.

¶ 8:38 AM