7
FINK: If I have spoken of movement, we must distinguish, on the one hand between the movement that lies in the lighting of lightning, in the outbreak of brightness, and on the other hand, the movement in τὰ πάντα, in things. The movement of brightness of lightning corresponds to the movement that goes out from ἓν τὸ σοφόν and continues on in the many things in entirety. Things are not blocks at rest; rather, they are diversified in movement.
HEIDEGGER: τὰ πάντα are thus not a whole, present in front of us, but entities {Seiende} in movement. On the other hand, movement does not occur as κίνησις [motion] in Heraclitus.
FINK: If movement does not also belong among the fundamental words in Heraclitus, it still always stands in the horizon of problems of his thinking.
HEIDEGGER: To Frs. 64 and 41, we now add Fr. 1: τοῦ δὲ λόγου τοῦδ᾽ ἐόντος ἀεὶ ἀξύνετοι γίνονται ἄνθρωποι καὶ πρόσθεν ἢ ἀκοῦσαι καὶ ἀκούσαντες τὸ πρῶτον· γινομένων γὰρ πάντων κατὰ τὸν λόγον τόνδε ἀπείροισιν ἐοίκασι, πειρώμενοι καὶ ἐπέων καὶ ἔργων τοιούτων, ὁκοίων ἐγὼ διηγεῦμαι κατὰ φύσιν διαιρέων ἕκαστον καὶ φράζων ὅκως ἔχει· τοὺς δὲ ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους λανθάνει ὁκόσα ἐγερθέντες ποιοῦσιν, ὅκωσπερ ὁκόσα εὕδοντες ἐπιλανθάνονται3 At first, only γινομένων γὰρ πάντων κατὰ τὸν λόγον τόνδε interests us. We translate, "For {GA 15: 18} although everything happens according to this λόγος [reason, speech, word]." If Heraclitus speaks here of γινομένων [coming into being], he is, nevertheless, talking of movement.
FINK: In γινομένων γὰρ πάντων [coming into being of everything], we are dealing with things being moved within the cosmos, and not with the movement that issues from λόγος.
HEIDEGGER: γινομένων belongs to γένεσις [genesis). When the Bible speaks of γένεσις, it means by this the Creation, in which things are brought into existence. But what does γένεσις signify in Greek?
PARTICIPANT: γένεσις is also no concept in Heraclitus.
HEIDEGGER: Since when do we have concepts at all?
PARTICIPANT: Only since Plato and Aristotle. We even have the first philosophical dictionary with Aristotle.
HEIDEGGER: While Plato manages to deal with concepts only with difficulty, we see that Aristotle deals with them more easily. The word γινομένων stands in a fundamental place in Fr. 1.
FINK: Perhaps we can add a comment to our discussion. We find γένεσις in an easily understood sense with living beings, phenomenally seen. Plants spring up from seeds, beasts from the pairing of parents, and humans from sexual union between man and woman. γένεσις is also native to the phenomenal region of the vegetative-animal. Coming into existence (γίνεσθαι) in this region is at the same time coupled with passing away (γθείρεσθαι). If we now refer γένεσις also to the region of
3. Diels translates: "Of the Logos. as is here set forth, men are always unable to understand, both before they have heard it and when they have first heard it. For though everything happens according to this Logos, men still resemble inexperienced people. even when they have experienced such words and deeds as I discuss, analyzing each thing according to its nature and explaining how it behaves. Rut other men remain unaware of what they do after they wake up, just as they lose awareness of what they do in sleep."