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§34 [246–248]

The German speaker always grasps the situation beginning with the other (“one believes”), but the Greek begins with himself: δοκέω, λανθάνω [I seem, I escape notice].

An example from Homer, Odyssey VIII, 93, where Odysseus says that he remained concealed before all the others as one who was shedding tears.3 A person, then, remains in a certain concealment. We do not say: he remained concealed to all the others. We say: he shed tears without any of the others noticing. We speak beginning with the other who is perceiving.

These are quite clear proofs of the tremendous power that ἀλήθεια had in the Greek experience of Dasein. Before we enter the confrontation with the Greeks, our fundamental task is to have a completely clear knowledge of how they stood in relation to beings.

The word δόξα also belongs among these fundamental meanings: I come forth; that which comes forth, that is, strikes others as such and such, that which shows itself; the look, the appearance of something, the respect in which something—an achievement, a person—stands; also fame. δόξα θεοῦ in the New Testament = the majesty of God. But what is decisive is this meaning of δόξα: looking a certain way, standing in visibility and respectability.

Now, this meaning goes together with a second meaning. The second we grasp in a certain sense with the words believe, belief. With this, a double meaning comes to light. We are familiar with this double meaning when we translate δόξα as view. A picture postcard or vista postcard, is a card that shows a picture, a vista—a view in the objective sense; it shows the look of a landscape as it strikes us. View in the objective sense of a multiplicity of objects. But we also use the word “view” in this sense: My view is . . . The postcard has no belief, it offers a look. So there is a double sense: (a) as a characteristic of the thing, look; (b) in the sense of believing, thinking such and such. This double character always resonates among the Greeks from the start; it is based on what the word means.

From this clarification of the fundamental meaning of δόξα and δοξάζειν we can already gather why the second answer must run as it does.

b) The apparent suitability of δόξα as ἐπιστήμη: its double character corresponds to αἴσθησις and διάνοια

Two things belong to the experience of a being (for the Greeks): (1) the being somehow comes upon us, but also (2) on our part there is a way of grasping it. Both seem to be fulfilled in δόξα. (1) Color of the leaf, song of the bird, given to me by sight and hearing. To this there


3. {. . . ἔνθ᾽ ἄλλους μὲν πάντας ἐλάνθανε δάκρυα λείβων.}


Being and Truth (GA 36/37) by Martin Heidegger