Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 23:24:35 +0000
Subject: Re: Heidegger in Germany


Dear Andew,
If you don't mind my interjecting a few points here:
aglynn-AT-cibcfinance.com writes
>Given even a cursory
>knowledge of the histories of different peoples I personally find the idea
>of any "pure" race laughable at best.
Why not embrace the extension of this idea, namley, that the idea of
"race", tout court, is laughable? It is not the notion of 'purity' that
renders the concept of 'race' so vicious; that merely exclaims the
concept (most likely deriving from some syncretic version of the ancient
theory of (mythical) humours, and thus, a piece of myth itself). It is the
very concept of 'race' itself! 

What I find deeply disturbing about your comments, Andrew, is that
they seemingly denounce a way of thinking, but, with no compunction,
invoke concepts that are intrinsic to it, and thus, keep it alive. These
concepts sustain the very way of thinking you superficially denounce. 
For example, you claim: 
>  (I'm a mix
How do you mean a 'mix'; a mix of what? 
>of Irish and Scottish,
What do you mean Irish and Scottish? I take it you are not referring to
a purely legally/politically defined population. Defined in terms of what
then? A pure Irish race? A pure Scottish race? A mix of these 'pure'
races? 
>Kind regards to a fellow Canadian
To be Canadian. Is that anything like being "Irish and Scottish" or
"German" or "Scandinavian"?

The difficulty here, in many points, is not unlike that faced by Heidegger.
However, H understood that we cannot dismantle a Cartesian
'subjectivization' of the kind of creature that we are in terms that keep
that 'subjectivization' alive. We need a new way of thinking, speaking,
understanding ourselves. 
>
No less is true about dismantling 'race', its egregious valuation of human
difference, and the thinking that sustains it.
-- 
jim


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