Page 94 - Cinematic Thinking Philosophical Approaches to the New Cinema

84 KrzysztofZiarek

6
into something possibly actual." This means that Dasein relates itself not
simply to what becomes possible, and thus possibly actual, that is, to what
is capable of becoming actual, but, first and foremost, to making-possible,
or to possibilization {Ermöglichung). Dasein thus relates first not to pos-
sibilities but to the force of the possible, that is, to the force of render-
ing possible, which Dasein maintains by binding itself to possibilities qua
possibilities. "Every projection raises us away into the possible, and in so
doing brings us back into the expanded breath of whatever has been made
possible by it." 7 In this way the projecting opens a world and holds this
whole before us in terms of possibilities. But what is possible prevails, as
Heidegger remarks, only if we bind ourselves to it in its being made pos-
sible, that is, if we participate in its becoming possible by holding it open
as a possibility.
At the basis of Heideggers explanation of temporality lies this ten-
sion between possibility and finitude, the tension that not only enables
Daseins understanding of itself as temporal but also makes possible its
relation to temporality, and thus to being, in terms of potentiality-to-be
{Seinkönnen). In short, understanding itself to be finite, Dasein also be-
comes capable of relating to itself and to the world around it through the
prism of its various possibilities for being, that is, in terms of the differ-
ent modes of being that become possible for it within its historically and
culturally situated existence. This is why Heidegger places the emphasis in
his description of temporality and historicity of being on the quiet force
of the possible. 8 It is being-toward-death and finitude that allow for the
recognition of this quiet force, which, through its silent openings, makes
and keeps all that is possible. This force is "simple," everyday, even "ba-
nal," yet it is also extraordinarily enabling. On the: one hand, it is the
force of "nihilation" (Nichtung), disappearance, and death. On the other
hand, however, this force "makes possible," that is, it enables an openness
onto possibilities that arise with the coming future: "the 'force' of the
possible gets struck home into one's factical existence—in other words,
9
that it comes toward that existence in its futural character," As Heidegger
explains in "Letter on 'Humanism,'" "As the element, Being is the quiet
force' of the favoring—enabling, that is, of the possible... . When I speak
of the quiet force of the possible' I do not mean the possible of a merely
represented possibilitas, notpotentia as the essentia of an actus of existentia\
rather, I mean Being itself.... To enable something here means to preserve
it in its essence, to maintain it in its element." 10 To maintain something