The sense of “dwelling” for Heidegger is familiar to us, not only from “The Thing,” where we saw that man dwells in nearness to Being, but from the Hölderlin interpretations, where we learned that the poet dwells in near-ness to the Source. It is no great surprise, then, to hear that dwelling is “the fundamental Being-structure” of There-being, hence the manner in which There-being abides, sojourns, is. It comports two dimensions: open-ness unto Being in its polyvalent One-ness (”…mortals are in (polyvalent Being), inasmuch as they (584) dwell. …”);1 comportment with beings, sc. things, with which from the very beginning There-being takes up its sojourn, and, indeed, inevitably so. The old Saxon (wuon) and Gothic (wunian) forms from which the German word for “dwelling” (wohnen) derives, suggest, besides, the notion of “treating with consideration” or “taking care of” something, which we translate “to tend,” as this word is used with reference to a watchman, caretaker or shepherd with his sheep.2
Now “… the fundamental characteristic of dwelling is this (function of) tending. …” 3 which comes-to-pass in both dimensions of There-being: ontologically, insofar as “… tending means: to guard (polyvalent Being) in its presenc-ing. …”;4 ontically, to the extent that “… dwelling as tending preserves (polyvalent Being) there where (There-being) takes up its sojourn: in things.”5 Hence There-being tends Being in its coming-to-presence through beings, inasmuch as it lets these beings as beings be. Note how completely this conception of dwelling concurs in its essentials with what SZ called the “in-being” of There-being as to-be-in-the-World.
- “… Die Sterblichen sind im Geviert, indem sie wohnen….” (VA, p. 150). Heidegger’s italics. See pp. 101 (Grundzug des Seins), 149 (Sich-Auf halten).[↩]
- “Tend to” translates schonen. It is an aphetic form of “attend,“ and suggests very nicely what the German cannot: an affinity with attend-ing (hören) and attend-ance (ge-horen). Note, too, that the whole conception rejoins the nuance that will be given to λέγειν-νοεῖν in WD: to receive under one’s care (in die Acht). We transcend here the author’s formulae but not, we feel sure, his intention.[↩]
- “… Der Grundzug des Wohnens ist dieses Schonen….” (VA, p. 149). Heidegger italicizes.[↩]
- “… Schonen heißt: das Geviert in seinem Wesen hüten….” (VA, p. 151).[↩]
- “… Das Wohnen als Schonen verwahrt das Geviert in dem, wobei die Sterblichen sich aufhalten: in den Dingen.” (VA, p. 151).[↩]