p.5 Cultivating wisdom is, for us even more than for the ancients, an indispensable practice. Today, as
E. F. Schumacher observes, "man is far too clever to be able to survive without wisdom." Yet today, more than ever, we count
on cleverness to compensate for a dearth of wisdom.
p.9 The first task, he [Heidegger] writes, is to find "a way of casting light" on a fundamental
question. Then one must begin the journey of its development: "Whether this is the only way or even
the right one at all, can be decided only after one has gone along it".
p.101-102 Philosophic thought, on the other hand, does not support its own criteria of falsification. Indeed,
the very attempt to refute philosophic thought marks a misunderstanding of its nature (BW 216). Invoking
Aristotle, Heidegger insists that wisdom begins with knowing the distinction between what is available for proof and
falsification and what is not (PT 29). Only the ignorant would attempt to prove or disprove art, even though it invites
judgment... Being irrefutable is not the same as being without error... Thinking is a falling short... the
philosophic abode is hardly one marked by accord. Many disagreements erupt between its guests... Philosophy stands
without authorities. "In the domain of thinking," Heidegger insists, "there are no authoritative statements..." ...Philosophy
is a decidedly lawless endeavor.
p.109 [Heidegger] "Philosophy is always completed when its end becomes and remains what
its beginning is, the question. For only by truly remaining in questioning does it force what is worthy of question
to appear..."
p.110 Isaiah Berlin recently stated: "Not to know where to look for the answer is the surest symptom
of a philosophical problem... Philosophy consists of trying to move toward resolving problems where prima facie
there appears to exist no obvious technique for finding the answers."
p.111 According to Heidegger, "Astonishment, as pathos, is the
arche [the beginning] of philosophy... The pathos of astonishment thus
does not simply stand at the beginning of philosophy, as, for example, the washing of his hands precedes the surgeon's operation.
Astonishment carries and pervades philosophy..."
p.112 One needs courage to think because thinking plumbs the abyss. Wonder and anxiety
join hands before it, separated by a heart-beat.
What transforms anxiety into wonder is our capacity to welcome the unknown and unknowable...
The interminableness of questioning, the uselessness of inquiry, and the anxiety of nothingness all serve to magnify the seductive
power and productivity of calculation and conceptualization.
p.190 In exploring the nature of problems that have no technical solutions, Hardin points to the difficulty
of winning a game of tic-tac-toe. Hardin explains that no procedures, regardless of their sophistication,
will allow victory in such a game against a competent opponent.
One can win only by radically redefining what the word "winning" means
