Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 19:27:56 EDT
Subject: Re: truth



Thank you, Michael and Michael, for the points of clarification and comments. 

Michael Eldred wrote:

"'The way we speak about what is true'  is usually in terms of correctness,
which is a restricted, non-originary understanding of truth that presupposes
the openness of the truth of being and also priveleges the present-at-handness
of what is present."

(By the way, how does one copy exerpts from a post so that those ">" symbols
appear on the left?  Is it just a matter of copying and pasting? Or are there
a few commands related to this kind of internet forum business that I don't
know about?)

I agree with what you say.  And this sheds, for me, some light on why H.
examines so closely the speech of the poets (vis. Hoelderlin, Rilke, George).
Perhaps poetry (Dichtung) in Heidegger's broad sense "says" without making
such a presupposition, or with some greater awareness of the openness of the
truth of being, allowing what it reveals to be unusual and originary.

Michael Eldred also writes:

"The truth of being as the openness of timespace is the primordial dimension
of enablement.  Only by virtue of belonging to and being propriated by this
openness is Dasein free."

This makes some sense to me--it rings true--but I would like to know more
about "propriated" or "propriation", which seems to be a crucial term in
Heidegger's thought.   I am only in my second year of learning the German
language, and thus reading a translated text of _Vom Wesen der Wahrheit_.
However, thanks to a translator's bracket, "propriated" occurs as a rendering
of "ereignet sich" (sich ereignen), whcih I guess is related to "Ereignis".
But, the little I know points "event" as a common meaning of Ereignis.  I also
know, however, that the root "eigen-" shows up in "eigene" meaning "own".
This makes sense to me, as H. often writes in B&T of the "ownmost"
possibilities of Dasein, the ones not filtered through the They but disclosed
in the moment (Augenblick).  But I don't see how Ereignis as propriation
(making one's own, taking unto oneself?) retains the sense of event, and I
would think such a retaining would be important to Heidegger since elsewhere
he speaks of the "event of Being" or the "happening of Being."

My German Etymological Dictionary (Duden's Herkunftsworterbuch, Band 7), which
I am not able to read and understand yet with much confidence, suggests that
the development of the word itself is a little screwed up.  I may be wrong,
but it looks as if Eriegnis originates from "er-augen" (to come before the
eye, literally?) which seems to have been misconstrued as a formation from
"eignen" (self) which it's really a formation of "augen" (eye).  The orignary
meaning "sich zeigen" (to show itself?), from which "happen" or "event" seems
to be a natural development.

Does H., when he uses "Ereignis" want us to think of Being "showing itself" or
propriation or what?  

Sorry to have pushed upon this path, dwelling perhaps too much upon what might
already be understood by the other members of this discussion, but I am
confused.

Jason


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