161
Science and Reflection

Wesen [to come to presence] is the same word as währen, to last or endure. We think presencing [Anwesen] as the enduring of that which, having arrived in unconcealment, remains there. Ever since the period following Aristotle, however, this meaning of ἐνέργεια, enduring-in-work, has been suppressed in favor of another. The Romans translate, i.e., think, ἔργον in terms of operatio as actio, and they say, instead of ἐνέργεια, actus, a totally different word, with a totally different realm of meaning. That which is brought hither and brought forth now appears as that which results from an operatio. A result is that which follows out of and follows upon an actio: the consequence, the out-come [Er-folg] . The real is now that which has followed as consequence. The consequence is brought about by the circumstance [Sache] that precedes it, i.e., by the cause [Ursache] (causa). The real appears now in the light of the causality of the causa efficiens. Even God is represented in theology—not in faith—as causa prima, as first cause. Finally, in the course of the relating of cause and effect,9 following-after-one-another is thrust into the foreground, and with it the elapsing of time. Kant recognized causality as a principle of temporal succession. In the latest works of Werner Heisenberg, the problem of the causal is the purely mathematical problem of the measuring of time. With this change in the reality of the real, however, is bound up something else no less essential. That which has been brought about [das Erwirkte] , in the sense of the consequent [des Erfolgten] , shows itself as a circumstance that has been set forth in a doing10—i.e., now, in a performing and executing.


9. der Ursache-Wirkungs beziehung.

10. sich . . . herausgestellt hat. The verb herausstellen means to put out in place or to expose. Sich herausstellen, in addition to serving simply as a reflexive form with the meaning to put oneself out in place, means to become manifest, to tUrn out, to prove. The main component of the verb stellen (to set or place) is fundamental to all Heidegger's characterizing of that which is taking place in the modern age (d. QT 15, AWP 129-130), while the prefix her- (hither) is regularly one of his primary vehicles for speaking of a bringing into presencing. The use of herausstellen here parallels that of her-vor-bringen above (p. 159) ; see also n. 21 below. Sich herausstellen will be translated hereafter with either "to set itself forth" or "to exhibit itself," depending on the exigencies of the particular context in which it appears_ The reader should keep in mind that the self-exhibiting of which the verb speaks is a self-setting-forth that involves a setting in place. The importance of the latter nuance of meaning in sich herausstellen is shown by the fact that the verb's introduction here leads directly into a discussion of the appearing of the real as object, as that which stands over against—a connection for the verb that will be found repeatedly in the succeeding pages (see especially p. 163 below) . Regrettably, none of the translations here employed can overtly suggest either the evocative force or the Wide-ranging kinship that sich herausstellen possesses in the German text.