Les penseurs du néant

Abstract

The present article does not attempt to trace a possible influence of the Jewish mystical tradition on Heidegger’s Seinsdenken, but to provide a general survey of the role played in both Cabbalistic tradition and Heideggerian ontology by the notion/concept of non-being (Nichts/Nichtlichkeit and Ayn) as well as of the place held by the two systems of thought in the history of meontology (the doctrine of non-being). Notwithstanding the fact that the Heideggerian “question of the sense of being” excludes any “question of God”, there are noteworthy ‘affinities’ between his reflection on being/origin – conceivable exclusively in their tension with non-being – and the Cabbalistic reflection on the groundless origins (of being and of God). In terms of ‘affinity’ rather than of ‘influence’, Heidegger’s a-theistic quest of a primordial thinking of being could be seen as carrying to its ultimate consequences the very paradox underlying this type of mystical approach.