Abstract
The article discusses Heidegger’s notion of ‘restraint’ (Verhaltenheit) as a basic disposition (Grundstimmung) in Contributions to Philosophy. Heidegger here uses the ‘passive’ semantics of the word and turns it into an ‘active’ anticipation of the style of philosophy and of the mankind to come, resulting in a strong tension in the description of restraint. Since restraint is said to be “the ground of care”, this tension carries over into Heidegger’s description of Dasein, whose being it is to care, and into the determination of philosophy as the essential activity of Dasein. While restraint characterizes the understanding of philosophy as Heidegger conceives it in terms of the history of being, the disposition of Verhaltenheit also relates to the description of philosophy as ‘considerate thinking’ (Besinnung). Yet while the account of ‘restraint’ aims at a shared disposition of both awaiting and anticipating, Besinnung and Selbstbesinnung in particular describe an individual activity much more in line with Heidegger’s radically individualist account of philosophy in Being and Time.

Keywords: Heidegger, philosophy, thinking, mood, disposition, history