Subject: Husserl and Heidegger
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 12:09:11 -0800


Perhaps a good place to start, Michel, is to look up the text by Heidegger
entitled _History of the Concept of Time: Prolegomena translated by
Theodore Kisiel (Indiana University Press: 1992). The chapter,  _The Early
Development of Phenomenological Research and the Necessity of a Radical
Reflection in and from itself_ provides a significant discussion of the
influence of Husserlian ideas about "the natural attitude" in which
Heidegger applies [no source in_History of the Concept....] the term
'reflection' to 'immanence' as 'really' when the object reflected upon
'belong to one and the same sphere of being'. Sounds like Zen talk. 

In a sense then Hiedegger states that this real life is more or less the
equivalent to : 

"The soul [being], in a way, all existing things" [Sein und Zeit 14;
Aristotle, De anima  G.8.431b21]). [in Levinas, 1996] 

He defines immanance this way: "this real inclusion of the apprenhended
object in the apprehension itself, in the unity of the same reality, is
called immanence. Immanence here has the sense of the real togertherness of
the reflected and the reflection.." Husserl makes up the modes of real
existence and states they consist of the immaterial nature of real objects
of consciousness such that there are no objects. States such 'refraining'
or "not going along with" the thesis of the material world and of every
transcendent world is called [greek word for refraining]." 

Anyway there is a lot of meat and gray here to stew with, or tufu if you
are a vegen. But I am enjoying this book_The History of the Concept of
Time: Prologemena_translated by T.Keisel and I am not even a philosopher. 

In the example re the fire hydrant I would offer that there is one
significant way to view the fire hydrant and that is it's usefulness as a
tool. If it functions as a tool well it thus has a certain amount of
handability. In the realm of the immanent then, if one was a member of the
local fire department and had a badge, then one would be concerned on the
basis of their own grounded [being temporalized as a fire boss] being about
the function of the tool. One would inspect and test the hydrant frequently
enough to ensure that it remains a functioning fire hydrant. This is
authentic existence and is the basis of morality. To include objects of
reflection, since in a way the person with the fire badge is charged with
'taking to heart the being of being' and their continuance as a sort of
universal sufferance for being in time, or temporalized being, is not
include abstract notions [immortality, freedom] without objects but to
experience felt life or real life as a result of their totality. The
philosophy of money and power also temporalize being too but they do not
provide immanence but phenomena [albeit false] of a transcendent type,
because they take attributes out of objects and quantify them specifically
for singular uses and thus become devaluated symbolically. Of course these
attributes are weighted by socially constructed definitions. As such then
even nuclear waste may have a high valuation based on social definition as
has been reported in one community with high unemployment in Finland. 

A true fire boss with a badge will put his or her being in the center to
protect the quality of life in a community because it is fascinating and it
can bring joy; they may even continue to do this when the retire.
Inauthentic existence, the fall of the spirit to everyday unreality, is the
negative correlate to authentic or real life. To take to heart the fire
hydrant is to make the fire hydrant necessary directly for ones sense of
purpose and mission in life. This way there is really no room for
deliberation, tradeoffs, reams of rules for professional conduct, because
the being and acts that deliberate from and of  'reflection' are
sufficient. Most ethical dilemmas seem to focus on making and proposing
possible tradeoffs, mitigating scarcity, and sharing the abundance of
material objects and their relations, or resolving emotional conflicts and
spiritual beliefs and definitions with the end to make better. 

Is authentic life then more or less a "sense" referred to in this
definition as immanence?

John Foster


Levinas, Emmanuel. On the Theory of Intuition in the Phenomenology of
Husserl. Paris: Alcan, 1930
 
Levinas, Emmanuel. Martin Heidegger and Ontology Diacritics 26.1 (1996)
11-32
Translated by the Committee of Public Safety

Heidegger, Martin. History of the Concept of Time: prolegomena. 

----------
> From: Michael Staples <mps-AT-nomos.com>
> To: heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> Subject: RE: Message to Greg
> Date: Monday, January 04, 1999 8:59 AM
> 
> 
> Hi Greg, good questions.
> 
> > I'm not sure if you're
> > saying that there is some ideally correct alignment or if you're saying
> > that "openness to Being" should be optimized.
> > 
> I guess I am saying that there is an ideally correct alignment to the
> openness to Being. And "Yes", I know I'm walking on thin ice here. But I
> think the indication of several of the Dreyfus articles we have discussed
in
> the past come to the conclusion that Heidegger is not a radical
> relativist...that there is a "Better" way of being that opposes a "Worse"
> way of being. The "Better" way of being revolves around an openness to
Being
> (open also to its closedness -- which is a little confusing and prompted
one
> of my recent questions answered by Michael E). I suppose in this sense
there
> is an optimization of the openness to Being.
> 
> >  I guess I also need you to
> > make clear what you mean when you say "openness to Being" and I'm not
sure
> > if you are talking about the therapist's openness or the client's.
> > 
> So I am still on thin ice here, Greg. But what i had in mind was openness
to
> the phenomena of Being that are either revealed or concealed, for the
client
> or the therapist. Perhaps there should be no distinction in the sense of
> "This is mine" and "This is yours", at least in the traditional sense.
The
> "Mine" or "Yours" would need to manifest as part of the phenomena
> themselves, not as a preconceived searching out of "Your problem" versus
"My
> enlightenment". So, lets say that within a meeting, the image of a fire
> hydrant reveals itself. As Hillman says, you follow the image
> hermeneutically, phenomenologically, rather than stamping the image
> imediately with some idea about fire-hydrants symbolizing some issue you
> have with your father.
> 
> 
> Michael Staples
> 
> 
> 
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