Saying as Un-Saying in Vigils and Nocturne

The aim of this article is to describe the key concept of ‘saying as un-saying’ from Vigils and Nocturne, one of Martin Heidegger’s recently translated (2025) Black Notebooks. The article places this discussion in context by first outlining what Heidegger means by ‘need’ from his recently translated (2022) essay on “The Argument against Need,” in order to show that human beings, whom Heidegger calls mortals, are needed by Being itself to use this peculiar and counter-intuitive language that somehow says or speaks by un-saying. I contend that the new Heidegger, as revealed in this Black Notebook, was deeply concerned about the human being in the modern age. Threatened by technology, journalism, industry, and atomic energy, human beings are called upon by Being itself to think differently. Heidegger calls this new approach appropriative thinking, a counterpoise to metaphysical thinking that uses propositions and assertions to express beings that are present. In a variety of ways, appropriative thinking un-says the assertions of metaphysics so that mortals might twist free from the technological enframing of the modern age. The Conclusion suggests how humanistic education exemplifies appropriative thinking in Heidegger’s work.