Heidegger:Vorläufiges I-IV

Volume 102 of the complete edition is the last of the "Black Notebooks," the first of which Heidegger created in 1931. The last four notebooks, which bear the remarkable title "Preliminary," were produced roughly between 1963 and 1970, with the assumption that the final entries extend even further into the 1970s. Their tone has calmed and simplified. While the first notebook contains wounded remarks about Günter Grass and Theodor W. Adorno, all personal polemics disappear as the reflections progress. Instead, there is a surprising engagement with "cybernetics," "industrial society," and even the "computer." The penultimate entry, written in barely legible handwriting, defines "thinking" as "an inaudible conversation with the vanished gods.".