Aletheia (Heraclitus, Fragment B 16)
Thus they also identify the concealment into which man falls by reference to its relation to what is withdrawn from him by concealment.
Both in the way the Greek employs λανθάνειν, to remain concealed, as a basic and predominant verb, as well as in the experience of the forgetting of remaining-concealed, this much is made sufficiently clear: λανθάνω, I remain concealed, does not signify just a form of human behavior among many others, but identifies the basic trait {GA 7: 273} of every response to what is present or absent—if not, indeed, the basic trait of presence and absence themselves.
Now, if this word λήθω, I remain concealed, speaks to us in the saying of a thinker, and if perhaps it concludes a thoughtful question, then we are bound to ponder the word and what it says as comprehensively and as persistently as we can today.
Every remaining-concealed includes a relation to the sort of thing from which the concealed has withdrawn, but toward which in many cases it remains directly inclined. The Greek names in the accusative that to which what has withdrawn into concealment remains related: ἐνθ' ἄλλους μὲν πάντας ἐλάνθανε.
Heraclitus asks: πῶς ἄν τις λάθοι "how could anyone remain concealed?" Relative to what? To what is named in the preceding words, with which the fragment begins: τὸ μὴ δῦνόν ποτε, that which never sets. The "anyone" mentioned here is consequently not the subject in relation to which something else remains concealed, but the "anyone" who comes into question with respect to the possibility of his own remaining-concealed. Heraclitus' question is not first and foremost a consideration of concealment and unconcealment with regard to the sort of men whom we, with our modern habits of representation, like to interpret as carriers—or even creators—of unconcealment. Heraclitus' question, expressed in modern terms, thinks the reverse. It ponders the relation of man to "the never-setting" and thinks human being from this relation.
With the words "the never-setting" we are translating—as though it were self-evident—the Greek phrase τὸ μὴ δῦνόν ποτε. What do these words signify? Where do we get our information about them? This seems the obvious question to explore, even if the pursuit should lead us far from the saying of Heraclitus.
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