From: andrew.glynn-AT-ca.pwcglobal.com Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 09:54:44 -0500 Subject: Re: Heidegger in Germany "Yet just as "thought" is limited, it is also released and charged with *more*, with a greater burden and possibility. Thought and action are not a simple dyad and are not independent. Thinking itself thinks this hybridity, and action undertakes this thinking, this thinking acts, not simply "insofar as it thinks" but insofar as one thinks and acts, and thinks what one is doing. But that thinking finds itself in a condition that is not freedom, but mooded and sensate. Yet, even this highly Heideggerian conception falls short of the insurmountable issue here. Thinking is always already *charged* with "ethics" from the start. One of its tasks is to guard against the ethical falling way from being what it is, just as Heidegger charges thinking with a certain Ur-humanism: that of understanding that to be human is to be in danger of falling into the "inhuman". Yet part of how the human falls in this way is that it loses contact with the essence of nonviolence as the ground of ethics" Violence itself marks itself in Dasein through mood, which suggests a connection with being and being-thought. In extremes of mood disorders self-violence is common as a way to reduce anxiety. Yet I'm not sure why you find thinking that is "mooded and sensate" unfree as a result. The phrase "essence of nonviolence" also seems problematic, when violence and nonviolence often seem to straddle one another. I'm far too ignorant of Gandhi's thought and life unfortunately to comment on his particular type of nonviolence. It reminds me immediately though of another eastern form of nonviolence, the practice of judo, which straddles violence and nonviolence by teaching gentleness in battle. I'm not sure how well either form (and I'm sure there's many others) get translated or re-created in western terms. Violence and nonviolence seem to me moments, there are moments of both in thinking, and even an ontological destruction of a text implies a gentleness and respect reminiscent of nonviolence. Please ignore the legalese below, I'm responding from work ... cheers Andrew ---------------------------------------------------------------- The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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