THEORETICAL / PHILOSOPHICAL PAPER Overcoming Philosophy: Heidegger, Metaphysics, and the Transformation to Thinking Gavin Rae Published online: 11 January 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract Heidegger’s critique of metaphysics is central to his attempt to re- instantiate the question of being. This paper examines Heidegger’s critique of metaphysics by looking at the relationship between metaphysics and thought. This entails an identification of the intimate relationship Heidegger maintains exists between philosophy and metaphysics, an analysis of Heidegger’s critique of this association, and a discussion of his proposal that philosophy has been so damaged by its association with metaphysics that it must be replaced with meditative thinking. It is not quite clear, however, how the overcoming of metaphysical thinking is to occur especially given Heidegger’s insistence that relying on human will to effect an alteration in thinking simply re-instantiates the metaphysical per- spective to be overcome. While several critics have argued Heidegger has no solution to this issue, instead holding that thought must simply be open to being’s ‘self’-transformation if and when it occurs, I turn to Heidegger’s notion of trace and a number of scattered comments on the relationship between meditative thinking and willing as non-willing to show Heidegger: (a) was aware of this issue; and (b) tried to resolve it by recognising a reconceptualised notion of willing not based on or emanating from the aggressive willing of metaphysics. Keywords Heidegger Á Philosophy Á Thinking Á Metaphysics Á Trace According to Martin Heidegger, metaphysics, a schematic thinking based on the affirmation of an anthropocentric worldview underpinned by binary oppositions, has been the dominant mode of thinking throughout Western history. This dominance G. Rae (&) Department of Philosophy, American University in Cairo, AUC Avenue, P.O. Box 74, Cairo 11835, Egypt e-mail: gavinrae@aucegypt.edu 123 Hum Stud (2013) 36:235–257 DOI 10.1007/s10746-012-9253-x