Richard Capobianco on the ultimate
Ereignis.
The later Heidegger ultimately found in the word Ereignis a
way of bringing forth in a particularly vivid way the manifold
features of Being itself. From the beginning of his path of thinking,
he was concerned to "ground" the metaphysical tradition's
core concern with "being(ness)" by bringing into view Being
as time -- the movement, the way, in which, by which, through
which beings emerge, abide in their "full look," decline, and
depart. The word Ereignis makes manifest the Being-way by
namely, (1) the "event" or "happening" that is the efflorescence
and effulgence of beings coming into (2) their "own" (the eigen
of ereignen) and thereby (3) coming out into "full view" to Dasein
(ereignen, related to eräugen, literally "to come before the eyes,"
from the German word for "eye", Auge). This Ereignis of beings,
this unfolding process, Heidegger referred to as the singulare
tantum in the late 1950s -- the "singular as such," a phrase that
no more than reiterated his frequent characterization of Being
itself as the "the one," to hen (Greek), das Eine; or as "the one
and only," das Einzig-Eine. This "singular" unfolding of beings
bears within it a dimension of reserve, but just in case this might
be overlooked, he sometimes had recourse to pair Ereignis with
the word Enteignis as a reminder. Nevertheless, in the later works
Ereignis conveys the simple and quiet but also profound and
astonishing "coming to pass" of all things, such as the plum or
cherry tree coming into luxuriant bloom -- eventfully, let us say.
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