File spoon-archives/heidegger.archive/heidegger_1998/heidegger.9803, message 184


Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 16:28:44 -0500 (CDT)
From: Allen.scult-AT-drake.edu (Allen Scult)
Subject: Re: philosophy and poetry


Henk,

you write
>

>Hoelderlin's Other is the romantic _homme religieux_ par excellence. He
>is the embodiment of _l'exemplarite_. Only by following his example is
>it possible to "feel". Let's suppose that the "feeling" refers to OR
>hermeneutics, OR art, OR knowledge (in other words, let us not make a
>choice for or against any one of them yet). Let us take the following
>quotation as a "true" proposition about the RELATION between
>hermeneutics-art-knowledge on the one and the Absolute and Beyng on the
>other hand:
>
>"Wir sind nicht dadurch unterschieden vom Dogmatismus, dass wir im
>Absoluten, sondern dass wir im _Wissen_ eine absolute Einheit des
>Denkens und Seyns, und dadurch ein Seyn des Absoluten im Wissen und des
>Wissens im Absoluten behaupten" (_Schelling_ 56).
>
>Roughly: We do distinguish ourselves from Dogmatism because we believe
>not in the Absolute as such but in the _knowledge_ of an absolute unity
>of thinking and Beyng - and therefore in a Beyng of the Absolute in
>knowledge and of knowledge in the Absolute.
>
>Could it be, that those human beings who are not initiated in the
>society of hermeneutics, or artists, or knowers cannot "feel", i.e. do
>not understand, or are not there when the truth sets itself in the work,
>or do not know - and are therefore _Normalmenschen_. Is it possible that
>these common men heard about the Absolute but do not know how it relates
>(cf. _religare: completer, relier, stimuler_) to Beyng (as
>understanding, or as art, or as knowledge), and are - therefore - not
>absolutely human?


There would seem to be an initiation that is a prerequisite to being there
when the truth sets itself in the work. Normalmenschen ( bless their souls)
have not been called to/been found by intitiation into the society of
artists, poets, philosophers who take upon themselves the religare of the
Absolute.  Even though it seems unkind to say so ( but I don't believe it
is), they are -therefore-not absolutely human.

Henk ( on the passage from Der Rhein)
>
>Heidegger treats this passage in a paragraph, titled: _Stiftung und
>Grundung des Seyns aus der Grundstimmung des Mit-leidens mit dem Leiden
>der Halbgoetter_ (Roughly: Institution and foundation of Beyng out of
>the basic mood of sym-pathy with the suffering of the demigods).
>
>This seems to be - at first sight - a kind of confirmation of the
>supposition that the _imitatio_ is a "feeling with" the Other who
>"feels" - and that this "feeling" (as understanding, art or knowledge)
>is the "religion" of the Absolute and Beyng.

Allen
I visited a painter friend of mine yesterday. We were sitting in his studio
looking together at his incomplete painting of the last two or three
months, and talking about the difference between himself as a maker of art
who sometimes is willing to philosophize with me about it, and me who makes
no art to speak of, but speaks of making with an unexplainable passion for
the work/with the work etc. Kind friend that he is, he said, "You make
Books."

"That's not the kind of making we're talking about," I said.

He smiled.

And then I thought to say the following ( somewhat perhaps in my own
defense, but also in line with the Sache of the discussion):

It seems to me the work needs someone to whom it can show itself (or maybe
I said, to whom it can be shown). I get an immense amount of satisfaction
out of "participating" in the work in that way.  I am the one to whom it
might be shown.  Part of the  satisfaction of being the- one -to- whom
-the- work- is- shown is talking about what I see, about the experience of
participating in the work in this way, to another who, in this rare case,
(and a few others) happens to be the one creating the work.

Henk,
>
>And Schlegel's utopia? His _harmonie de l'universalite_? Can it be found
>in in knowledge alone? In _l'Entretien Infini_? In the truth setting
>itself in the work? Or should the question be: What about utopia?
>

Allen,
It can't be found in knowledge alone, but rather in l'Entrerien infini-the
truth setting itself in the work.  The only referent I can find for utopia
in this process is the somehow existing society of poets,philsophers,
artists in which the incompletely known absolute is religare( I want to say
in English, is re-ligioned).

Thanks,

Allen




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