Date: Fri, 08 May 1998 12:25:53 -0700
From: Mike Staples <mstaples-AT-argusqa.com>
Subject: Re: R: thinker and thought


Anthony Crifasi wrote:

> Michael Staples wrote:
>
> > >Perhaps there is an implicit interest, and an explicit admonition
> of
> > >solipsism in Heidegger's work, don't you think?. Weather or not he
> set
> > >out to combat solipsism directly is probably beside the point,
> though in
> > >a way you could probably make a case for that. The topic of God is
> > >entirely different, and I don't think this topic should be treated
> quite
> > >the same way. But I don't think it is in fact possible that we
> could all
> > >be solipsistic and still be Heideggerian.
>
> It depends on whether or not you believe that presence is prior to
> praxis. For
> traditional solipsism, there is no notion of praxis being prior to
> presence, so
> since they argue that solipsism results from the philosophy of
> presence (ie,
> traditional epistemological problems concerning how we can know things
> which
> are present to us), then solipsism is the *absolute* result of
> philosophy, not
> merely the result of considering things in the mode of presence
> (only). For
> Heidegger, on the other hand, presence is not the way of encountering
> beings
> which is most prior (philosophically speaking), so that even if
> solipsism were to
> be the "logical" result of the philosophy of presence, there would
> still be
> another way of encountering beings which is unaffected by that
> "logical" result
> (since logic itself is obviously derived only in the mode of
> presence). So I
> suppose that "we could all be solipsistic and still be Heideggerian,"
> but only if
> we reject the traditional notion that presence is prior to praxis.
>
> Anthony Crifasi

I was at Columbia University in the mid 1960's when the library was
taken over by the students and the school was held hostage. To idicate
which side of the fence they sat on, teachers, students and
administrators wore arm-bands of differing colors. If you came down on
the side of the students in the library, you wore one color, etc.. Four
or five colors emerged. Everyone still on campus came to school with his
or her favorite arm band....except for those in the philosophy
department, who came to school wearing all of the arm bands at once.

I guess the moral of this story is that if there is another side to be
seen, the philosophers will dig it out and flop it up on the table for
inspection. Are you suggesting that we can be Heideggerians of a
philosophy of presence prior to Praxis then?

Michael Staples



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