Abstract

According to Martin Heidegger language is the “house of Being”. It is the language that allows us to be in the world, and at the same time it is the language which throws light upon how we are there. The air of Being is called with the ancient Greek Rhythmos as a first measurement of time, and thus the articulation of our speech points out the articulation of time. With reference to the musicologist Thrasybulos Georgiades the two formations of language will be shown as articulations of time that are most decisive for the Occident: the archaic rhythm of quantity which originates from a “filled time”, and the rhythm of accentuation that belongs to the arythmic principle of counting. The counting-principle of “empty time” is the allincluding reality of the present world. Heidegger calls it the “Gestell”. In this connection we have to repeat the question about the Rhythmos. The problem of Being in an epoch of an all dragging away processuality means nothing else than the question about the historical dimension of Rhythmos as a first measure of time.