But now of what type is this truth of the Being of whatever is? It can be defined only from out of that whose truth it is. However, inasmuch as within modern metaphysics the Being of whatever is has determined itself as will and therewith as self-willing, and, moreover, self-willing is already inherently self-knowing-itself, therefore that which is, the hypokeimenon, the subiectum, comes to presence in the mode of self-knowing-itself. That which is (subiectum) presents itself [präsentiert sich] , and indeed presents itself to itself, in the mode of the ego cogito. This self-presenting, this re-presentation [Re-präsentation] (setting-before [Vor-stellung] ), is the Being of that which is in being qua subiectum. Self-knowing-itself is transformed into subject purely and simply. In self-knowing-itself, all knowing and what is knowable for it gathers itself together. It is a gathering together of knowing, as a mountain range is a gathering together of mountains. The subjectivity of the subject is, as such a gathering together, co-agitatio (cogitatio), conscientia, a gathering of knowing [Ge-wissen], consciousness (conscience).27 But the co-agitatio is already, in itself, velle, willing. In the subjectness of the subject, will comes to appearance as the essence of subjectness. Modern metaphysics, as the metaphysics of subjectness, thinks the Being of that which is in the sense of will.
It belongs to subjectness, as the primary determination of its essence, that the representing subject makes itself sure of itself—and that means makes itself sure continually also of what it represents—as a particular something. In accordance with such a making sure, the truth of that which is, as certainty [Gewissheit], has its character of secureness [
27. The French word conscience. On the meaning of the prefix ge- as "gathering," see QT 19
28. Sicherheit (certainty, security, trustworthiness, safeguard) very closely parallels Gewissheit (certainty, sureness, certitude, firmness), although in it the connotation of making secure is present in a way not found in Gewissheit. This nuance, resident heretofore in Heidegger's discussion in the verb sichern (to make secure, to guarantee, to make safe), is now, with this use of Sicherheit—in conjunction with sich versichern (to assure oneself, to attain certainty, to insure one's life, to arrest [someone]) and Versicherung (insurance, assurance, guarantee)—brought forward into the pivotal position it maintains in the discussion immediately following.