EREIGNIS

We translate the German vernehmen with the hyphenated expression “to receive-perceive.” In its existential-ontological meaning vernehmen implies receptivity (Greek νοειν: to perceive, to understand, to listen in). In a more active, juridical sense, it means that which the judge comes to perceive through the interrogation of witnesses. Vernehmen refers to a phenomenologically immediate, nontheoretical, receptive perceiving. This contrasts with vor-stellen, “to represent,” literally, “setting-before” that which objectifies and reifies.