ABSTRACT
81Philosophy has said a lot about doing, but little about letting-be-done. Granted, the polarity of doing and undergoing, and the virtue of tranquillity, has played a major role in its history. And yet, what has been understood as unique to human life is primarily the capacity actively to explore and give shape to the conditions of its own life — a life that is reflectively directed rather than instinctively or affectively regulated. This has obscured the element of passivity which inheres in all our activity. Little thought is devoted to the state of being determined [Bestimmtsein] that lies at the heart of human determining [Bestimmendsein]. The unity of doing and letting-be-done is most often ignored where it — in theory as much as in praxis — is most important: namely, in dealing with the human capacity for self-determination.
