File spoon-archives/heidegger.archive/heidegger_1998/heidegger.9808, message 15


From: PhilSin-AT-aol.com
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 13:21:54 EDT
Subject: Re: Henry


     Michael, In a message dated 98-08-05 11:01:54 EDT, you write:

> 
>  >> >Zimmerman (Eclipse of the Self) says the following:
>  >> >
>  >> >For Heidegger, for something "to be" means for it to be revealed,
>  >> >uncovered, made manifest. Being refers not to a thing but to the
>  >> event
>  >> >of being manifest."
>  
>  
     Hello, I'm back. I don't know if this will be good or bad news to you.
I'd like to comment on the metaphysics of presence. My understanding is that
this is the way of seeing the world that forms the basics for western
metaphysics since the time of Plato. This is precisely the "tradition" the
Heidegger proposed to deconstruct in the unwritten portion of B&T. My
understanding of the term is that it refers to the operation of "stopping"
time , stopping the happening of life and "fixing" the present time and then
trying to reduce the object through further and further refinements of its
being to arrive at last at the essence of the thing, the thing in itself.
Contrast this with the "presencing" of the object, how it comes into a
particular historical being, how aspectsof the thing are unconcealed but
always at the expense of other aspects being concealed. The epochs of being
play a role in the what of unconcealment as does the interests, projects and
intentions of the seer. This analysis forms the basis for the critique of
science as truth as it shows that both the epoch (the technological epoch) and
the intentions of the "investigator" (the forestructure of the scientist),
pre-determine the outcome even if the "scientist" believes he or she is merely
observing and recording "objective" data.  
     Later on Heidegger analysed the thing from the perspective of the
fourfold, a rich and poetic understanding of the things themselves.

     Yours,

     Phil Sinaikin


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