Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 11:27:22 -0600
From: as4481r-AT-ACAD.DRAKE.EDU (allen scult)
Subject: RE: "I", proper names, etc.


Michael Eldred in commendable agreement with my encomium to Greek and
German as especially resourceful laanguages for thinking in comparison with
with English:.


>Yes, it's strange. What has this to do with the circumstance that the
>Anglo-Saxon mind-set abhors speculation, unless there's a prospect of making
>money? Hegel is famous for his remark that the English do not have any
>speculative propensity--and the animosity is still felt today in both
>directions, with the English-cum-Anglosaxons calling always for down-to-earth
>common sense. >It is striking that both Greek and German have strong
>forms, whereas in English
>they have become much much weaker, in favour of English's penchant for
>endlessly

Let me more explicitly put together those two ideas and suggest that the
power of the "speculative dimension of language" in Greek and German is due
in part to the conditions of possibility that reside in their "strikingly
strong forms." The strong forms are especially amenable to thinking through
the "how of its being," of particular word-beings( being- words), by means
of a sort of mimetic building out from the basic form.  Try to do that in
English and the form disintegrates under the weight!


>And Allen further:
>>>H claims that Ousia meant "Anwesen, Hab und Gut, Vermoegen, Besitzstand"<<
>
>So being and having, _pace_ Erich Fromm, is not a terribly earthmoving
>distinction. Nor is the popular gloss of being thought verbally instead of
>substantively, although it probably takes us a bit further. H's.
>interpretation
>here doesn't bend the Greek and is non-controversial, as far as I know.

Interestingly, in these 1924 lectures, Heidegger tries to "tease" the
students into following a particularly difficult passage concerning Ousia,
by saying if they can't logically follow the verbal argument on  being as
having, they can just think of it as "substance."  Thanks!

And speaking of thanks, I deeply enjoyed your second post, especially
joining with Dante in song at the end.

Allen




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