Chapter I
The first phase of the interpretation
A. THE FIRST SECTION OF THE STATEMENT
§2 The theme of the dictum: beings as a whole
a) The meaning of τὰ ὄντα
About what is Anaximandros speaking here? About τὰ ὄντα. τὰ ὄντα—plural of the neuter τὸ ὄν—the being; plural: the beings. Yet from early on, already in Sanskrit, the neuter plural does not simply mean a multiplicity of individuals; instead, it signifies the many individuals in their unity: hence “that which is,” thereby thinking of that which is [das Seiende] as particularized into many individual beings, into the beings [die Seienden]. We could use “the beings” as a translation of τὰ ὄντα only provided we recognize there is no question here of arbitrary, individual beings. More clearly at first: singular—that which is—and this indeed now requires some comments.
That which is—about beings pure and simple (cf. below p. 35, sec. a, τὸ ἐόν)—not about just any arbitrary individual extant thing in its accidental obtrusiveness, e.g., the sea; also not the being we call the land; also not what is in the sea, on land, in the air, not the plants and animals; also not humans and their work, their trouble and joy, their success, their triumph, their death—all such is a being, not that which is. Even all this totaled up does not constitute that which is. For as soon as we start to seize any being whatever and ascribe something further to it, we have just as immediately wrenched that individual out of that which is. We do not first of all have nothingness and then the individual beings; on the contrary, first and last we have that which is. The latter is not simply all individual beings thrust together; it is more than all these and then again at the same time less. That which is means that which is before and around us, below us and above us, and includes ourselves. That which is: not this being