Stambaugh: Ge-stell e Er-eignis

Framework or Frame (Ge-Stell  ) and event of appropriation (Er-eignis) are perhaps the two key words in this lecture. They are extremely difficult to translate. “Ge-Stell” in the sense in which Heidegger uses it does not   belong to common language. In German, “Berg” means a mountain, “Gebirge” means a chain or group of mountains. In the same way “Ge-Stell” is the unity (but not a unity in the sense of a general whole subsuming all particulars under it) of all the activities in which the verb “stellen” (place, put, set) figures: vor-stellen   (represent, think), stellen (challenge), ent-stellen (disfigure), nach-stellen (to be after someone, pursue him stealthily), sicherstellen (to make certain of something).

The event of appropriation (Ereignis  ) is a word belonging to common language and means “event.” But Heidegger’s use of it is more (1) “abstract” in the sense of being infinitely removed from everyday events and yet of being that which is so close to us that we cannot see it, and (2) “concrete” in its use of the very roots of that word: er-eignen (eigen = own, thus to come into one’s own, to come to where one belongs) and er-äugnen (Auge   = eye. This is the real etymological root of er-eignen), thus to catch sight of, to see with the mind’s eye, to see face-to-face.