Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 18:02:04 +0200 Subject: Re: The literal and the Symbolic From: artefact-AT-t-online.de (Michael Eldred) Cologne, 15 July 1998 Mike Staples schrieb: > Is the distinction between the "literal" an the "symbolic" an outgrowth > of subject/object metaphysics in that to say something is "literal" is > to say that it points to one world, while to say that it is symbolic is > to say that it points to another world? Or maybe that is going too far > afield and it would be better for me to ask simply if there there is a > place for such a distinction (literal versus symbolic interpretations) > in the work of Heidegger? Heidegger says that there is metaphor only in metaphysics, something that shocked me when I first read it. The point is: How is a literal meaning to be tied down and demarcated from a metaphorical meaning? As long as language is conceived of as just a system of signs attached to impressions in the soul which are received from things (as in the Aristotelian conception and all metaphysics, with modifications, after Aristotle), there is a line of attachability of words to things. But if language is thought of as pointing to and calling beings into the open, this can happen in many ways, and there is no reason to privilege one calling over another, for all language reveals beings in some way or other. There is also no reason to privilege the substantive, i.e. the noun, over other parts of speech, since language does not have to be primarily a naming of substance (_hypokeimenon_). Perhaps adverbs are more attuned to the naming that language achieves since they point to a way of being, a mode and thus a mood. Why should language have a home position in literal meanings, even if these latter could be well defined? Why not allow language its free play as, say, James Joyce has done in “Finnegans Wake”? Symbolic interpretations, in turn, seem to be another sort of restriction of the free play of language. A symbol arises when two rings are made from one block and fit together perfectly; one ring then belongs “symbolically” to the other. A symbolic coding of pairs of meanings seems rather heavy-handed and unwarranted. Thus, for example, green is the colour of hope for Medieval Christianity, anything long is a symbol for the penis in psychoanalysis, a mandala is a symbol for unity and completeness in Jungian psychology, etc. An untrammelled play of language could point to more. Michael _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- artefact text and translation _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- made by art _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ artefact-AT-t-online.de-_-_ _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Dr Michael Eldred -_-_-_ _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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