Escaping 'Oblivion': Rethinking Heidegger's Challenge through the Metaphysics of St. Thomas Aquinas

The later Heidegger came to the conclusion that the history of philosophy is defined in terms of "oblivion" of Being ( Seinsvergessenheit). For the later Heidegger, since the history of philosophy is defined by "oblivion," metaphysics must be "overcome." For Heidegger, the history of metaphysics is defined by the history of answering and framing the question of Being. According to the notion of "oblivion," the history of philosophy is a history of forgetting how to adequately pose the question of Being. The purpose of this thesis is to put to test the later Heidegger's claims of "oblivion" and "overcoming" through a confrontation with the metaphysics of St. Thomas Aquinas. The point is to zoom in on the scholastic epoch, an important point in the history of philosophy, for Heidegger, using Thomas as paradigmatic, in order to come to grips with where Heidegger's critique holds and where it does not.