class of nov 29 2004, Heidegger

LBCL490
class of nov 29

Martin Heidegger
"Rector's adress"
"Lecture on humanism"

forward imperative absent: defining what is. foormulating "what is is".
written post-war but we take it as somative of his thinking
"ever-chnging" in his focus.
falleness of being because of corruptedness of language
jargon repeated over and over loose meaning
always raising question: toward definition and no answers just other question
"being in the world" in a more existential way

lecture: how small-b beings are related to big-B Being.
closest he comes to define what "is" Being.

lays out ways to accomplishing our being: language and thinking

says why what he doing is not a trad humanisam, existentialism

why is there no "ethics" defined in this book, why he refuses to lay one out

heidegger & wittgenstein: goo back to essentials of west civ philo, trowing out cartesian thought, plato, socratic: goes to pre-socratic
throws out idea that man is a spoiled child
displace idea of subjectivity
impact on structuralism, foucault: adopt critique of subjectivity
on existentialism
on decontructionism, Derrida
on Ecological thinking, world being made for our use leads to deconstruction
streak of marxism and influence on neo-marxist critique of technology
enters U to stydy theology and to become a priest
theological cast to a lot of what he's saying
not that Being and logos is God, but rethortic of fallen, something that speaks through us is deeply influenced by catholicism, in fact his early followers are catholics, priests attends his lectures
"beginning the greatness": before socrates no division between subject and object
themes of crisis: fallen from being
and nostalgia as a "homecoming", man not at home in Universe and wants to come home to pre-socratic concept of being
project into a realm of faith without being a theologic aspect: not logic, not sphere of rationality: "being is being", sounds very theological

ph.d. on mediaval scholasticism, drops theology, comes to freiburg, replaces a jew as chair of philo
privileges the oral - to read heidegger says arendt is to cheapen, is a bastardization of him: it's completely wrong: you must hear his voice. write ecause obliged to.
reading him is distorting him.
theme of crisis, like benjamin
heidegger writting about being awake at time of collapse of 1918, old-german authoritartianist, sees badly democracymarxist outlook on dehumanizing modernity
theme of exploitation behind science
evolving into a sort of nihilism, controlling
for him the self , the cartesian subject, is a predator. it destroys the world, believes everything is made for him in order to control the world.
language is becoming instrumental, a blabber, a jargon of technique, lost connexion to sacredness of being

writting at a time when there are a whole lot of writter trying to reconstruct world: like hitler and mein kampf
time of projects

themme of nostalgia: coming from nieztchean heritage, home-sickness, homelessnes being destiny of modern man

tries to create a immediate way to being. returning to essentials.
Fichte: germans have a strong relationship to greeks, that other europeans do not have.
heidegger: when language is first used, it is the closest to being. over time they become encrusted, loose closeness to being.
but german closest to "being"
myth of motherland "greek" origin
... ethymmologist would says he interprets badly
but he ask people to make a leap of faith into this, highly subjective drama
language as a claim on us rather that contrary
language speaks through us rather than us, being speaks through us.

language is abused

some have special access to "being", Rilke, Goethe, Schiller, poets

Piety: question Being makes us essentially humans

in using everyday language we are not questionning being

pre-reflecting, uncouncious stuff treated counciously

paradox: trying to be un-formulaic, but does.
vardaman in faulkner: heideggerian: "what is is?"

trying to avoid jargon you just reinvent jargon

What is "Is", "Is" is the big-B Being, Being is the "isness" of "Is"

truth lies in a thinking that is atuned to Being (like poets do)

you have to take it on faith.

it's opposed to metaphysics: it does ask what is "Is", but waht is nature of...

p.254 "thinking overcomes methaphysics by claiming back down to the nearness of the nearest". Not accessible to metaphysics. lost astonishment to greatness ob Being in the face of the world. immanent. not in some remote realm divided from us. proximity: paradox, it's right there, not transcendental socratic realm.
essence of what exist in reality, making critical distinction bw transcendence and immanence.
everything is immanence: that's what differentiates him from platonism.

Hereclitus, Anaxymène, Anaxymandre

I am a humanism, the true humanism, all others do not recognize the true dignity of man as the questionner of Being, in caring for being, being the shepherd of Being.
existentialism: focusing on the subject.

thrown into facticity

roots of words.

einstein. dimentionality. written in a ontext were physicist are trying to find a language to describe a situation of discoveries that have thrown of language of newtonism.

how to you mediate life: asking where is being in something you encounter. not question if there is being. gotta believe in it and asking what it is. perception vs. being in itself. free from cognition.

blham end of thinking, a full-circle.

mystical, hypnotist mode to blind people.

futility of questioning it.

existence prcedes essence says sartre. false says heidegger.truth of oblivion. "we project ourselves in possibilities in the world": egostictical prospect of state of being.
niezsche still a metaphysician: "will to power", centered around the individual. antropomorphic.