#ground-laying

ΥΠΑΡΚΤΙΚΗ ΑΡΧΗ Fink adds: “The ground, posited in the phenomenological idea of laying-a-ground, is the ‘self’ which uncovers itself only in pure self-meditation” (p.165/13-14). Ο ΦΙΝΚ ΠΡΟΣΘΕΤΕΙ: "ΤΟ ΘΕΜΕΛΙΟ, ΠΟΥ ΤΙΘΕΤΑΙ ΣΤΗ ΦΑΙΝΟΜΕΝΟΛΟΓΙΚΗ ΙΔΕΑ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΤΕΙΝ-ΕΝΑ-ΘΕΜΕΛΙΟ, ΕΙΝΑΙ Ο 'ΕΑΥΤΟΣ' ΠΟΥ ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΠΤΕΙ ΤΟΝ ΕΑΥΤΟ ΤΟΥ ΜΟΝΟ ΣΤΟΝ ΚΑΘΑΡΟ ΑΥΤΟ-ΣΤΟΧΑΣΜΟ".

Indeed, “the idea of the ground-laying of philosophy peculiar to phenomenology is the idea of the pure and persistent self meditation [der reinen und konsequenten Selbstbesinnung]” (p.164/13).

It is important to draw attention to this feature since we typically think of axioms or assumptions when we assay to discern the foundation of a philosophy; but Fink is making a clear break with that practice, holding instead that the first, fundamental decision of a philosophizing is “the meditation, in which a ground-laying is carried out” [“immer ist die Besinnung, in der sich eine solche Grundlegung vollzieht, die erste grundsätzliche Entscheidung eines Philosophierens.”] (p.162/11).