Subject: Re: Chora=Place?
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 07:26:28 +0100


Hans,

The reference you are looking for is Einfuhrung in die Metaphysik, GA40,
p71; An Introduction to Metaphysics, p66.

H says:- "The Greeks had no word for 'space' [Raum]. This is no accident;
for they experience the spatial on the basis not of extension but of place
[Ort] (topos); they experienced it as chora, which signifies neither place
nor space but that which is occupied by what stands there". The shift from
topos and chora to a 'space' defined by extension is initiated by Platonic
philosophy, because of its interpretation of being as idea.

Chora seems to be one of those Greek words that H neither translates nor
transliterates. It "abstracts from every particular... and in such a way
precisely admits and 'makes place' [Platz macht] for something else" (ibid)

The use of Ort is very important in the later Heidegger, but too my
knowledge he doesn't return to chora again, except in Was heisst Denken?,
p174-5; What is Called Thinking?, p227 when he links it to khorismos and it
designates the gap between being and beings.

You should look at Jacques Derrida, Khora, Editions Gallilee, 1993; "Khora",
in On the Name, Stanford UP, 1995.

Hope this is useful

Best wishes

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Hans Ramo <hra-AT-fek.su.se>
To: heidegger-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU
<heidegger-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, July 22, 1998 20:52
Subject: Chora=Place?


>The Greek word Chora is frequently (and normally?)
>translated to denote space, and Topos is place.
>
>Still, Heidegger has somewhere 'speculated' in a
>translation of the Greek 'Chora' into German
>'Ort' (place).
>
>If somebody knows where Heidegger makes this
>translation, and has any clear view with
>reference on this question, I'd love to hear them.
>
>Regards,
>
>Hans Ramo
>Stockholm University
>
>
>
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