Only A Dialogue Can Save Us: The Dialogical Character of Heidegger’s Conception of Destiny (Geschick)

The focus of this paper is Heidegger's approach to the question of destiny. That approach in one sense is in sharp contrast to the fatalist tradition, in another appears to presume ineluctability. This seemingly contradictory position can be reconciled with reference to Heideggerian terminology. Through an analysis of affined terms such as dialogue, truth, correctness, Dasein (there being), logos (Word), legein (speaking), fate, being-in-a-world, facticity, historical perception, historiography and disclosedness, the paper aims to utilize this possibility and discover “authentic destiny of man”. The main questions dealt in this regard are what the nature of the force of destiny is, how far it extends and by virtue of what it pursues its course. By narrowing down the subject into the history of thought, something that can be tackled by Heidegger's works, the argument departed from Heideggerian way of doing philosophy: Establishing dialogue with the history. In order to reach a fair and tenable explanation for the validity and influence of such a method, necessary examples are cited throughout the article. The main finding that emerged from this research was that ambiguity as the common outcome of dialogues creates a space for the suspension of the customary meaning and acknowledgment of a whole new one. This space is where the paths of history change profoundly. This explanation model also let us to rethink thinker as the one who creates history, is sustained and also beset by it. Only thereby could we make sense of static and dynamic aspects of destiny together.