Basics

Being elementary

In English, the main auxiliary verbs (i. e. excluding modal verbs) are to be, to have, to do. In German, these become sein (to be), haben (to have) and werden (to become). This is only a small difference and so is the second one. The English to have, seen as full verb, seems to be weaker than the German haben. We say Ich habe ein Auto while in English we tend to add another verb: I have got a car. Two small differences?  They completely change the way philosophers write. English thinkers do not dispose of the same possibilities to be "down to earth" as Germans.

The first movement of Hegels Logik, in German, includes Sein, Nichts and Werden. Culminating in a very elementary, substantivated auxiliar verb: werden, the German original sounds much more evident than the English translation: Being, nothing and becoming – through being and nothing, only something elementary can arise, and to become doesn't seem to be nearly as elementary as werden.

Ernst Blochs starts his famous Tübingen Introduction to Philosophy with the sentences: “Ich bin. Aber ich habe mich nicht. Darum werden wir erst.” Three basic, auxiliar verbs maybe let the readers ignore the Philosopher's game: he passes from I to us without any explanation (he is Marxian). The three sentences read as an example of elementary grammar: sein, haben, werden. Consequently they give an impression of evidence which is only justified by German language. As an English translation we find: “I am. But I do not possess myself. That is why we are only coming to be.” The reader may reflect about this thought, but he will not agree immediatly.

German Philosophy gains part of its evidence and force by using particularities of German language; it does, in a certain sense, not exist outside its language.