Subject: Re: Heidegger and the Hebrew Tradition
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 12:47:40 +0100


Allen,

>Again, we agree.  I see a definite parallel/analogue(It's hard to know
which word to use to appropriately describe similar ideas in two different
texts which might very well derive from a simlar source in Dasein's "lived
experience" of hermeneutical ontology) between Heidegger's re-calling of the
call(of being) which he usually "re-issues" from his reading/performance of
a passage in a classical philosophical or poetic text, and similar moments
which are central to the Jewish reading of key passages in the Pentateuch.
I have two essays on this striking parallel on my home page, but I can
quickly point here to the Torah's constant admonition to" hear ("Shmah" in
the Hebrew which is the same word in Biblical hebrew for "understand") the
words of Yahweh," to " meditate upon them day and night," "teach them
diligently ( Augustine picks this up in the word in his famous "deligere. .
.") to your children," etc., all pointing to a closely connected
relationship between the "call of the words" (rhetoric) and
interpreting/understanding the words ( hermeneutics).<

think about the tradition re-discovered by Pierre Hadot (and Michel
Foucault) about philosophy as _spiritual exercise_ which is indeed a
_physical exercise_ too (and a social one!), for instance to have some
sentences _ready-to-hand_ (_pro-cheiros_ or _before hand_ is the terminus
technicus used by Marc Aurel, this translation (before hand) could point
more to _Vorhandenheit_ but I think the sense is a practical one; Hubert
Dreyfus uses the terms _availableness_ for _Zuhandenheit_ and
_occurrentness_ for _Vorhandenheit_) This is a kind of _using a sentence_
for _practical_ (or _moral_) purposes (instead of treating it as an
_assertion_ or _proposition_). You probably know the interesting book by
Paul Rabbow where he compares the tradition of _philosophic exercises_ with
the Christian (and particularly Jesuit!) tradition of the _spiritual
exercises_ (I made some references to this in connection with our
_information society_ in my book: Leben im Informationszeitalter (Berlin
1995) pp. 22 ss)




>The relationship between the role of prophet, the prophetic word, the call
of being is ambiguous in both Greek and Hebrew I think.  There is a passage
in Plato's Timaeus, I think, where Mantike and hermeneutike are juxtaposed
in a way which is typical "pollaxus legomenon" ( Heidegger's "focused
ambiguity").  Isn't there always a necessary mantic accompaniment to
prophecy, no matter how much credit is given to/taken by the prophet for the
semantic orgination of the words he speaks?  In the Plato passage, the role
of hermeneutike seems to be to interpret what  mantike might say in the
course of an incomprehensible trance.  But I'm not on solid ground here with
the GREEK.<

The German philosopher Hogrebe has investigated the difference between
_Mantik_ and _Semantik_. He has developed a _mantic theory_ in which
_reality_ is supposed to announce itself in a _sensitive way_ before we
begin doing any kind of _semantics_.

I think a key text is Plato's Ion, where Plato compares the functions of the
poet (_hermeneus_) as opposed to the ones of the _technites_ or, more
general, to the one who _knows_ what h/she is doing. Socrates displaces, as
I say, the _vertical_ structure of the (theological) _angelia_  by the
_horizontal_ structure of the _dia-lectical_ logos. But:

>In the Hebrew, on the other hand, the prophets ( "nevi'im) exist on a kind
of hierachy leading torwards " wisdom," which under the influence of Greek
became philosopophy.  Maimonides insisted on the "wisdom" of the prophets,
but even here, there is a hierachry with Moses of course at the top, as
"teacher/speaker" (Fuersprecher?) of God's words.<

yes, I think there is a lot of _vertical_ or _shamanic_ (hi Bob!) or
_hierarchical_ dimensions in philosophy (and in science/technology as well,
and of course in the media... See Flusser). How far is this _deconstructed_
in Cyberspace?


>Some very rich connections here.<

indeed

>Thanks,>

my pleasure


Rafael





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