Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 11:12:07 -0500
From: Daniel McGrady <dMcGrady-AT-compuserve.com>
Subject: Demarcation Principle


Karl Popper produced a demarcation principle for science, the principle of
falsifiability.   Is it possible to draw a demarcation between science and
philosophy along Heideggerean lines?

Consider this suggestion.  A scientist is concerned to know an object that
they are not concerned to be.   The entomologist intends to know about
insects, not to be one.   A cosmologist is interested in knowing about the
cosmos, not in being the cosmos.   On the other hand, the philosopher's
concern with wisdom is such that they may beome wise, with thinking such
that they might think and come to thought, with clarity such that they may
be clear in thought word and deed, with existence such that they may be
fully there, with  mind such that they might be mindful, etc.   

Descartes' Meditations demarcate him as a philosopher, because his
principle concern was not indubitable knowledge, but to become a knower.

Husserl's hope that phenomenology be the science of sciences hides the
fundamental issue for himself, that of being the transcendental ego.

Heidegger:    to enter fully into his inheritance of how to be.   In
practice, to work the conditions such that it may happen.

At first it would seem that all this could be accounted for ontically
rather than ontologically.  E.g. someone might say that seeking to become a
wise man requires purely ontic conditioning.  The ontic shows itself in
that the principle concern is with being a wise man.    The philosopher for
whom the issue is wisdom is not primarily that of becoming a wise man, but
in letting wisdom be.   This means more than being wise in a certain
situation.   For someone ontically concerned  here only, the primary
interest would be the situation that needs wisdom, while for  someone
ontologically concerned the primary interest is that wisdom show itself.

One reason for drawing such a demarcation line is the attempt to save
philosophy from being devoured by the sciences.   Without it becoming a
mere handmaiden.    And  thus to save its soul.

Daniel



     --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---