Preface
The chapter entitled “The Principle of Identity” represents the unchanged text of a lecture given the 27th of June, 1957. The occasion was the Day of Faculties at the celebration of the 500th year of the founding of the University of Freiburg in the Breisgau, Germany.
The chapter on “The Onto-theo-logical Nature of Metaphysics” is the partly
revised investigation which formed the conclusion of a seminar on Hegel’s Science of
Logic which was held during the winter semester of 1956–57. The lecture was given in
Todtnauberg on the 24th of February, 1957.
In “The Principle of Identity” we are offering backward and forward glances. The chapter points ahead into the realm which forms the basis of the discussion for the lecture on “The Thing.”
1 It refers back to the realm in which the essence of metaphysics takes its rise, metaphysics whose nature is characterized by
difference.The togetherness of identity and difference will be demonstrated in the present publication as the object of thought.
In how far difference has its origin in the nature of identity the reader may discover for himself when he is attentive to the harmony prevailing between event
2 and issue.
3Nothing in this sphere it is possible to prove, but much can be hinted.
Todtnauberg,
September 9th, 1957