and what is expressed, what is expressed in such a way that I thereby do not genuinely bring expressing to completion, or exhaust it. However, what is said in this process has, latent within itself, the possibility of originary appropriation, as I can be serious about what is said merely thus. This λόγος is the average discoursing about matters with respect to which one knows his way around to a certain extent, without making it present to himself. From this, the possibility arises for a pure completion and for proper exhibiting.
c) The Determination of Independent λόγος in Relation to φύσει γινόμενα
Λόγος is precisely this: the mode of the exhibiting of beings, the possibility of deciding what the primary access is and what primarily is to appear. For this reason, the entire discussion turns to the question, πῶς λεκτέον?279 The λεκτέον takes up the main point set forth at the beginning, namely, that the οὗ ἕνεκα is the πρῶτον since it is the λόγος. Here, it is a question of a genuine λόγος, the λόγος of θεωρία. From the earlier sections,280 we already know that λόγος has a fundamental meaning for the being of human beings: ζωὴ πρακτικὴ μετὰ λόγου. The λόγος is fulfilled in the addressing of the world and in the discussing of it. In λέγειν, the world’s beings that are there, and being-there itself as living come to interpretation, to the degree that beings move themselves in the world. Speaking is the constitutive mode of fulfillment for concernful dealing. For the being-there of human beings, there remains the possibility of that determinate λέγειν in this concernful dealing looking away from concern in the sense of ποίησις, of directed having-to-do. Πρᾶξις can lose the character of ποίησις; it does not also need to have the character of acting. It can take on the character of the mere treating of something in the sense of debating it. The λόγος becomes independent; it itself becomes πρᾶξις. This mode of dealing is θεωρία, no longer looking-around with the purpose of . . . , but rather looking to grasp things in their being and being-there. In this way, the theoretical arises, science as a possibility on the basis of being-there itself. This basic fact of the matter must be kept in view.
Insofar as λόγος becomes independent, in the sense of debating (λόγος used in the sense of “debate”), the question is how λόγος looks as to its particular implication for the being-region of the φύσει ὄντα as γινόμενα. Aristotle proceeds cautiously, and while he does not discover the species of λέγειν, he does discover what is most proximate to it. Here, he attempts to clarify the peculiar λόγος of θεωρία. A context must be pointed out that has a definite kinship with the λόγος of θεωρία. This familiar way of dealing with things, which is akin to θεωρία, is τέχνη, a form of ποίησις, the “production” of something as guided by a knowing-the-way-around. The construction of a house is guided by construction supervision. And why, precisely, this being by this dealing? It is clear without further remark that ποίησις is what is known proximally. However,
279. Cf. De part. an. Α 1, 640 a 33, 641 a 15, 641 a 29.
280. See S. 45 ff.