Abstract

The article explores the problem of untruth with Heidegger by way of an analysis of the notion of obviousness, conceived in Being and Time as semblant truth. Heidegger depicts obviousness as a particularly cunning mode of untruth, one which conceals something by seeming to disclose it. How to understand the semblant character of obviousness? What kind of deception does obviousness entail so as to make us mistake it for the truth? A close examination of the nature of the relation between obviousness and truth exposes a number of difficulties involved in Heidegger's early conception of untruth, whose resolution will eventually require Heidegger to seriously revise the basic principles of his early ontology