Heidegger’s Internal Contradiction: Event, Understanding, and the Destruction of the Other A Structural Critique of Ereignis and Authenticity

This paper argues that Heidegger’s fundamental ontology contains a structural contradiction. While Heidegger claims that Being is disclosed as an event (Ereignis), every event requires the presence of the Other for its manifestation. Yet Heidegger’s notion of authenticity attempts to expel the Other as a source of inauthenticity, and his political actions further demonstrate the practical destruction of the very conditions under which Ereignis becomes possible. By introducing a distinction between *understanding* (Verstehen) and *knowing* (Wissen)—where knowing requires existential enactment rather than mere conceptual grasp—I argue that Heidegger understood Being but did not know it. The contradiction between event and authenticity reveals the collapse of Heidegger’s ontology on its own terms. A relational conception of event, structurally similar to the Buddhist notion of dependent co-arising, is required to resolve this internal failure.