Abstract

In a prior article, “Symbolic Difference,” I followed the indications provided by certain data in order to focus on the ontological locus of the symbol. A difference then appeared in the origin, which revealed itself through gesture, sign, use, and trace. The symbol, distended by definition between man and his origin, is the privileged region of language where this difference is thematized for itself. The search for the concealment-manifestation at work in the symbol led to the difficult problems surrounding its interpretation, and it culminated with a summons or provocation towards existence. I mentioned some historical examples in which the symbol’s efficacy with regard to a life was blatant: the symbol opens up a path whose course makes one experience the origin. The condition of this experience is to “live without why,” to let that which is, be.