Speculari Aude: The Platonic Path of Metaphysics in Dieter Henrich

Unlike an Aristotelian entelecheia, however, this power of conservatio sui is an activity that never achieves completion in a goal but returns to itself constantly, feeling its own actuality only in the exercise of its power, in its constant striving from goal to goal. [...]it is an activity that can be understood without positing a given, natural terminus, a hou heneka toward which it must be directed.\n Moreover, it must provide some guidance in choosing among the interpretations, lest the process of self-transformation degenerate into a Hegelian spurious infinity-simply one interpretation after another. [...]in some of his essays, Henrich takes a different path, seeking to reestablish the connection between the freedom and happiness that characterized classical Greek theoria, not via the satisfactions of a complete logos but rather through a concept of "contemplative gratitude" (Kontemplativen Dank), a thanks which goes beyond the reciprocal gratitude familiar within the horizon of moral life.91 Kontemplativen Dank is not addressed to a personal deity, nor is it thanks for the transparent intelligibility of the world.