BEING FOR THE GREEKS

Heidegger ties up the original meaning of being among the Greeks with what he is convinced to be its original etymological associations with living. He insists that the first and essential name for being among the greeks was φύσις, which as related to φύειν, means not merely to grow or increase, but rather to emerge (aufgehen), which notion for the Greeks included both the aspects of presencing (Anwesen) and that of appearance (Erscheinen). And Heidegger insists that even where this basic word in early western thinking on being does mean growth (Wachstum), it still never meant increase in the sense of evolution (Entwicklung) or sheer becoming (Werden). It rather meant a certain "coming out into the open." And as deriving itself from φύειν, then, Physis means coming forth and "staying around for awhile."

This original Greek notion of being had a certain solidity to it, a certain permanence (Ständigkeit), and it was this aspect of Physis which later became hardened among the greek into οὐσία. Nevertheless, this was not some sort of ungenerated permanence, something which for the Greeks would have been coterminous with nothing. Physis was, rather, a "being-brought-forth" (Her-vor-bringen), a "bringing-around" in the highest sense; Physis for the Greeks brought to the fore the unconcealed (Unverborgenheit) from out of the concealed (Verborgenheit).

¶ 6:27 PM