The Anaximander Fragment
concerning τὸ χρεών which arose in our commentary on the second clause and its reference back to the first clause. First, that it designates the presencing of what is present; second, that if χρεών thinks the presencing of what is present, then presencing may be thought somehow in terms of what is present; or it may prove to be otherwise, that the relation of Being to beings can only come from Being, can only rest in the essence of Being.
The word κατὰ precedes τὸ χρεών. It means "from up there, or "from over there." The κατὰ refers back to something from which something lower comes to presence, as from something higher and as its consequent. That in reference to which the κατὰ is pronounced has in itself an incline along which other things have fallen out in this or that way.
But in consequence of what, or by what inclination, can what is present become present as such, if not in consequence of, or by the befalling of, presencing? That which lingers awhile in presence lingers κατὰ τὸ χρεών. No matter how we are to think τὸ χρεών, the word is the earliest name for what we have thought as the ἐόν of ἐόντα; τὸ χρεών is the oldest name in which thinking brings the Being of beings to language.
That which lingers awhile in presence becomes present as it surmounts reckless disorder, ἀδικία, which haunts lingering itself as an essential possibility. The presencing of what is present is such a surmounting. It is accomplished when beings which linger awhile let order belong, and thereby reck, among one another. The answer to the question to whom order belongs is now provided: order belongs to that which comes to presence by way of presencing—and that means by way of a surmounting. Order is κατὰ τὸ χρεών. At this point something of the essence of χρεών begins to glimmer, though at first from a great distance. If, as the essence of presencing, χρεών is related essentially to what is present, then τὸ χρεών must enjoin order and thereby also reck in that relation. The χρεών enjoins matters in such a way that whatever is present lets order and reck belong. The χρεών lets such enjoining prevail among present beings and so grants them the manner of their arrival—as the while of whatever lingers awhile.
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