EARLY GREEK THINKING
IV
Even now, when the way in which thinking belongs to Being has been brought somewhat more clearly to light, we are scarcely able to hear the enigmatic key word of the saying—τὸ αὐτό, the Same—in its enigmatic fullness. But when we see that the duality of the ἐόν, the presencing of what is present, gathers thinking to itself, then the governing duality gives us a clue to the profound riddle of what is hidden by the ordinarily empty and insignificant word "the Same."
Is it from the unfolding of the twofold that the duality in turn calls thinking onto the path of "for its own sake," thereby requiring also the belonging-together of the presencing (of what is present) and thinking? But what is the unfolding of the twofold? How does it happen? Do we find any basis in Parmenides' saying for a proper inquiry into the unfolding of the duality, or for hearing what is essential to the unfolding in what the enigmatic key word of the saying silently conceals? We find nothing immediate.
Still, it should occur to us that in both forms of the saying concerning the relation of thinking and Being the enigmatic key word stands at the beginning. Fragment III says, "For the Same is taking-heed-of and so too presencing (of what is present)." Fragment VIII, 34, says, "The Same is taking-heed-of and (that) toward which heedful perception is on the way." What does situating the word at the beginning signify in what this passage says? What tone is Parmenides trying to set in letting us hear this resounding emphasis? Ostensibly the dominant tone. In it resounds the anticipation of what the saying really has to say. Grammatically, what it says is called the predicate of the sentence. Thus the subject here would be νοεῖν (thinking) in its connection with εἶναι (Being). In accordance with the Greek text this is the sense in which one must interpret the grammatical structure of the saying. By placing its enigmatic key word at the beginning as predicate, the saying calls on us to dwell {GA 7: 252} on the word attentively, returning to it again and again. But even so, the word says nothing about what we would like to learn.
Therefore we are compelled to focus our gaze relentlessly upon the preferred position of τὸ αὐτὸ, the Same, and to make a daring attempt to think from the duality of ἐόν (the presencing of what is present) to its unfolding.
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