one of servitude within a realm where the human more authentically reaches into the event of appropriation.
It appears as though we fell prey to the danger of all too casually directing our thinking toward some far-off universal, while under the name “event of appropriation” only what is the nearest of the near—that within which we already reside—immediately avows itself to us. But what could be nearer to us than that which brings us near to what we belong to—wherein we are what belongs—that is, the event of appropriation?
The beginning of this lecture issued the directive: attend to the path. Where has the path led? To the entrance of our thinking into what is simple, which we name the event of appropriation in a rigorous sense. It lets the human and being belong in a togetherness. Belonging now means brought into ownership, delivered into ownership. By his essence, because he is needed, the human is brought into the ownership of what is at first still called “being.” As presencing, being is delivered into the ownership of the human essence.
Who we humans authentically are and what being authentically is, we may first duly question and surmise only when thinking has entered that region where appropriation [Eignung], bringing into ownership [Vereignung], propriety [Eigentum], and authenticity [Eigentlichkeit] reign, namely, in the event of appropriation [Er-eignis].
The event of appropriation is the realm, resonating in itself, through which the human and being reach one another in their essence, and achieve their essencing [ihr Wesendes] by losing those definitions that metaphysics has loaned to them.
To think the event of appropriation as event of appropriation means to work at building the structure of this realm. Thinking acquires the tool for building this self-suspending structure from language. For language is the most tender resonance, holding everything in this relation, in the suspended structure of the event of appropriation.
Indeed, what does that which has been said up to now have to do with the principle of identity? We answer by going back along the path traversed.
The event of appropriation brings the human and being into the ownership of their essential togetherness. We catch sight of a first appearance of this event, one compelling for us today, in