The Significance of Heidegger and His History of Philosophy for Russia — Part 2
For Heidegger, the history of the West is the history of Western philosophy. That is, philosophy expresses in itself the deep content of the whole historical process. At the same time, Heidegger, as well as Husserl and all Western European thinkers, identifies the fate of the West [Zapad] with the universal fate of humanity, which in its life cycle is fated to move towards the sunset [Zakat], to the “behindfalling” [za-pad] of its spiritual sun. The West is a place of sunset, where the sun “falls,” goes to sleep