Already in 1976, Heidegger scholar and translator Albert Hofstadter suggested saying Ereignis as enownment*. He grounded this decision in the knowledge that Heidegger wanted ereignen to say its connection to eigen: own -- to make one's own, to be own to, the owning work as such. Hofstadter quotes Heidegger saying how we must simply experience this ereignen, to experience how humans and being are 'en-owned' (ge-eignet) to each other. Hofstadter says das Ereignis is the letting-belong-together, the one befitting the other, of being and time, humans and being, the four-fold. To explain this, he states, 'At the center of das Ereignis is own,' and 'the most literal possible translation of das Ereignis...en-, -own, and -ment: enownment...the letting-be-own-to-one-another...the letting be married of any two or more...Enownment is not their belonging, but what lets their belonging be.'

This 'own' has nothing to do with 'selfish' possession but everything to do with the work or dynamic 'by which the different members of the world are brought into belonging to and with one another and are helped to realize themselves and each other in realizing this belonging.'*

We could perhaps say what is happening in Ereignis as the 'dynamic of owning.' Whether we could translate the German word in that manner -- that is another question!

Pp. 171-172

¶ 3:05 PM