Abstract

This dissertation is the examination of Ereignis in Heidegger's thought. Commonly translated as "appropriation," Ereignis is not simply one of Heidegger's later themes, but is both the content and method of his entire output. That Ereignis is both content and method points to its very nature as a structure which guides our thinking and describes the structure that any entity has, both ontically and ontologically. In other words, the structure describes or defines both the entity and its "environment" . Specifically, Ereignis defines or determines the structure of reality itself---what Heidegger calls "beings-as-a-whole"---and also determines the structure of those beings which compose "beings-as-a-whole." ;Ereignis has a recursive structure in two ways. First, as the structure of reality and of our thought, it is simply recursive; that is, it has a recursive pattern of down and up loops in which each iteration down to the basis is a more simple version of the previous one and each iteration up from the basis is more complicated than the previous one. Second, as the structure of entities and their environment, Ereignis is mutually recursive. As mutually recursive, this structure describes or determines the interrelatedness of entities with each other and with their environment. This mutual recursion works like two functions which use as input the output of the other. For example: f = y and g = x. When pointing out such a situation Heidegger often uses the terms "equiprimordial," "mutual conditioning," "interpenetrating," and soon. ;The work has the following structure: Chapter 1 discusses recursion and Heidegger's phenomenological method. Chapter 2 elaborates on the Ereignis structure and relates it to Heidegger's conception of Being from Basic Concepts. Chapter 3 is a further investigation into Ereignis via its etymology and relation to Heidegger's analogy of thinking as a path. Chapter 4 details the mutually recursive nature of entities and regions as they illustrate the Ereignis structure. Finally, Chapter 5 brings everything together by examining various perplexing themes in the later Heidegger in light of Ereignis and its structure