Briefly: our philosophy

Ereignis is a word from the German, meaning an unusual, even life altering event. At the root, eigen indicates ownership, making the verb signify a process by which we take possession of something, or, simply, give sense to an event. Ereignis refers to the act of making an event our own.

When our Being reveals itself it is as if we are near the presence of a mystical light. We can refer to this event of nearness as the Ereignis of presencing, i.e. the event of coming close to our Being. In our daily lives we tend to find ourselves barred from experiencing such a presence; this blockage, concealment, is a side effect of our metaphysical view of technology, our attempts to dominate life through technical mastery. The cure lies not in accumulating more knowledge, but rather in the ancient admission of Socratic learned ignorance: All I know is that I do not know. As a truth technique this approach can enable us to grasp the world in its entirety in a glimpse, an yet as if eternally.

To gain a relationship to technology that is governed by truth rather than metaphysics does not entail that we leave the modern world behind; rather, we begin to posit a different relation to the machines: from now on technology should no longer serve to dominate and exploit us and our natural habitats, but rather aid us in our task to become guardians and nurturers of Being and beings.

This is the event of Ereignis: an opportunity to rethink our lives as a whole. This event is such that it cannot be fully present; like Being itself we approach it, seek its proximity, and then, as the event passes, we begin to grasp it, making it our own.