What do people think of Heidegger's definition of aletheia and the distinction he made between it, and the Latin veritas? Based on this distinction and European history, he claimed that modern Europe's metaphysical foundations are not really Greek but Roman. Essentially, Greeks are partially not European - a people apart - almost the Other. I believe this has enourmous implications. William V Spanos has written an interesting essay: "Heidegger's Parmenides: Greek Modernity and the Classical Legacy" which partially tackles this.

The ‘West’ created a seemingly-Greek culture, not Greek, by adopting and cultivating to the point of hybris only some elements of Greek thinking. Thanks to his deep study of the Greek language, Heidegger understood various differences between Greek and Western thinking, yet remaining himself a Western.

Rome is based not even in veritas, but in Lex (Law), which by itself reveals the foundations of the West to be conventional and subject to a permanent struggle between solipsism and objectivity (or between Descartes and Papal Infallibility, if you prefer such a scheme). All these are only marginal in Greek culture, interested (from Homer, to Plato, to the New Testament, to the Byzantine Fathers...) in the Person, the Truth as a Person (God, Demigod, Saint) and in Immortality as eternal Friendship with the Divine Person of God and Man.

Heidegger understands that Greek a-letheia is the uncovering (remembering) of a real life, yet without participating in this life, without even following Greek history, just studying some aspects of it, mainly linguistic, in a laboratory. The West created a culture that resembles a natural being, but beyond this resemblance, there prevail all those features which prove it precisely a monster.

If you know Greek, you can read two texts on these problems, the www.ellopos.net/gr/greeks/default.asp">Ancient Greeks, and the www.ellopos.net/gr/machina/default.asp">Bio-Mechanical Intension. In the second text there is also an examination of www.ellopos.net/gr/machina/2.asp"> modern European ‘philosophy’, including Heidegger, Husserl, Descartes, Spinoza, Schelling, Kant and others, as well as a presentation of the Papoprotestant approach to Christianity.

Me ektimisi Giorgios. Have you read Spanos's essay? If so, your thoughts? You say Heidegger understands that Greek a-letheia is the uncovering (remembering) of a real life? Does this 'real life' resemble the Platonic forms? An incorporeal world of ideals and archetypes recognisable by leaving the ever changing world down here so to speak? Like I said, this has enormous implications on being authentically Greek. What other differences do you think Heidegger discovered between Western and Greek thinking?

I have read the Ancient Greeks article. Very good. I find this subject matter fascinating. If you have a more extensive bibliography please pass it on.

I've searched for Spanos article, but it is not online. Do you have it? Can you post it here?

I don't have a copy of Spanos's essay but I have emailed the school if they could email me one. I read the article several years ago and at that time I did not really understand him but I was fascinated by some of the general ideas expressed. It triggered an interest in Heidegger, the original Greek meaning of Greek words, the history of European thought and Greek identity. I will keep trawling to try and find it.

Some prefer Time and Being, but the Introduction to Metaphysics is a greater work, and is built upon an interpretation of Greek philosophy. Check a chapter www.ellopos.net/gr/open.asp?file=reading_/heidegger_thinking.pdf">on Parmenides and Sophocles (in Greek translation, pdf), where, among other concepts, you will find crucial remarks on the difference between Greek logos and Western reason. Check also (from the same book, but in English) a small excerpt on the concept of www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greeks-us/heidegger_physis.asp">Physis.