In this kind of 'dwelling' as a holding-oneself-back from any manipulation or utilization, the perception of the present-at-hand is consummated.2 [62] Perception is consummated when one addresses oneself to something as something and discusses it as such.3 This amounts to interpretation in the broadest sense; and on the basis of such interpretation, perception becomes an act of making determinate.4 What is thus perceived and made determinate can be expressed in propositions, and can be retained and preserved as what has thus been asserted. This perceptive retention of an assertion5 about something is itself a way of Being-in-the-world; it is not to be Interpreted as a 'procedure' by which a subject provides itself with representations [Vorstellungen] of something which remain stored up 'inside' as having been thus appropriated, and with regard to which the question of how they 'agree' with actuality can occasionally arise.
When Dasein directs itself towards something and grasps it, it does not somehow first get out of an inner sphere in which it has been proximally encapsulated, but its primary kind of Being is such that it is always 'outside' alongside entities which it encounters and which belong to a world already discovered. Nor is any inner sphere abandoned when Dasein dwells alongside the entity to be known, and determines its character; but even in this 'Being-outside' alongside the object, Dasein is still 'inside', if we understand this in the correct sense; that is to say, it is itself 'inside' as a Being-in-the-world which knows. And furthermore, the perceiving of what is known is not a process of returning with one's booty to the 'cabinet' of consciousness after one has gone out and grasped it; even in perceiving, retaining, and preserving, the Dasein which knows remains outside, and it does so as Dasein. If I 'merely 'know [Wissen] about some way in which the Being of entities is interconnected, if I 'only' represent them, if I 'do no more' than 'think' about them, I am no less alongside the entities outside in the world than when I originally grasp them.6
2 'In sogerateten "Aufenthalt"—als dem Sichenthalten von jeglicher Hantierung and Nutzung—vollzieht sich das Vemehmen des Vorhandenen. ' The word 'Aufenthalt' normally means a stopping-off at some place, a sojourn, an abiding, or even an abode or dwelling. Here the author is exploiting the fact that it includes both the prefixes 'auf-' and 'ent-', which we find in the verbs 'aufhalten' and 'enthalten'. 'Aufhalten' means to hold something at a stage which it has reached, to arrest it, to stop it; when used reflexively it can mean to stay at a place, to dwell there. While 'enthalten' usually means to contain, it preserves its more literal meaning of holding back or refraining, when it is used reflexively. All these meanings are presumably packed into the word 'Aufenthalt' as used here, and are hardly suggested by our 'welling'.
3 'Das Vernehmen hat die Vollzugsart des Ansprechens und Besprechens von etwas als etwas.' On 'something as something' see Section 32 below (H. 149), where 'interpretation' is also discussed.
4 '... wird das Vernehmen zum Bestimmen.'
5 'Aussage'. For further discussion see Section 33 below,
6 '... bei einem originären Erfassen.'