Subject: Re: Verlassenheit macht Frie!
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 15:59:01 -0000


----- Original Message -----  From: "Stuart Elden" <stuart.elden-AT-clara.co.uk
To: <heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001
1: 34 PM Subject: Re:

oops, i meant Allen iso Stuart, sorry it's late.

Cat:

Freudian slip? : -)

Stuart:
Well, I was tempted to engage before this provocation, but now I see no
reason to hold back.

Catweasle:
Hahahah! It was YOU that has got hold of the wrong end of the Freudian
slipnoose - my remark was aimed at Jan's previous post, where he  appeared
[untypically,] to agree with me [Jud] regarding the Gould piece. My remark
had nothing to
do with Prof Allen Scult or you - untutored as I am in the hierarchy of
academic life,
even I would not have the temerity to place you in  the same league as Prof
Allen Scult - I am
surprised that you should even consider the possibility.

Stuart:
If this is supposed to suggest that I am easily equated to Allen, I'd  be
happy to take that, and would indeed take it as a compliment. Allen
embodies the kind of virtues of a contributor to this list that  Catweasle
so obviously does not. His posts are invariably interesting  and thoughtful,
grounded in a very sound knowledge of the matters at  stake.
For one particular thing, he actually _reads_, carefully and  attentively.
Compare, for example. . .

Allen:
Towards the same end, he also requires that his students place
themselves "at the disposal" of the text by recognizing that they are
"needing to be told. . . that in some regard, something is still wrong
with us" that philosophy, properly understood, is in a unique  position to
correct.

And Catweasle's characterisation of this as

"Place yourselves at my disposal" or "You need to be told! "

carefully to an important text and suggesting that they attend  carefully to
the teacher. Surely you can see that? Also the suggestion  that there is
"something still wrong with _us_". Not "you", but "us".  Heidegger is
recognising that he can learn from Aristotle too. Clear,  if we look at the
texts he devoted to Aristotle in the 20s and the  impact they had on his own
thought.

Catweasle:
It is the arrogant assumption that we are in a position of "needing to be
told," that hints at Slybegger's incipient Nazism.  His requirement that
students place themselves "at the disposal" of the text - MY reaction, and
the reaction of most people is that "I" will decide what "I" consider "I"
need  to be told - "I" will decide what "I" think about the content of the
'text,' not some clapped out old adulterous Nazi thug. To "place oneself at
the disposal of something or someone,"  is to assent in an act of  compliant
availability - an act of mental supination similar to Arendt's physical
pronation.
 I am reminded of Slybegger's remarks somewhere near the beginning of his
muddled and laughable 'Basic Concepts,' where he  makes it obvious that he
doesn't want to teach guys who think for themselves or have any previous
knowledge:

"We have to assume an attitude whose achievement requires no special
knowledge in advance, neither scientific nor philosophical.  The latter may
be useful for other purposes, but here such knowledge would only be a
hindrance."


This "compliant availability" and "acquiescent disposition" was a
characteristic of the period of the Third Reich and one which Slybegger
obviously indulged and encouraged as we can plainly see by Allen's piece.
Just like his Jesuit mentors he preferred an unresisting, compliant,
disciplined, credulous tabular rasa to scrawl his phantasmal crudities upon.

Stuart:
Of course, the question of Heidegger's pedagogy is an interesting and
important topic. Hans Jonas suggested that Heidegger made it possible  for
him to really engage with the way of thinking of another thinker.  And he
meant Aristotle.

Catweasle:
Hurrah! for Slybegger - What's the big deal - you do the same for your
students don't you - that's what he was paid to do wasn't it?

Stuart:
Hannah Arendt had a very high view of Heidegger as _teacher_.

Catweasle:
And a very low view of him - supine at times  by all accounts.

Stuart:
But then, of course, Heidegger uses the notion of the  University in a very
damaging way - for his political ambitions.

Catweasle:
For his NAZI political ambitions you mean and the back-stabbing of old
friends and sly contacts with the Gestapo?

Stuart:
But this is an issue that needs to be thought through carefully - reading
the Heidegger/Jaspers correspondence is instructive, for instance; or
Kisiel, etc. - not dismissed in summary and, yes, ignorant ways.

Catweasle:
I'm sure a clever apologist is capable of  clearing even Himmler and Goebels
of any blame given enough commitment - the way things appear to be going
Slybegger is on his way to becoming a blessed gentile like Schindler.  Their
is nothing 'ignorant' about the way I view Slybegger - passionate yes, and
as for slow, careful, reading -  I'd put many a rabbi to  shame.

Stuart:
Heidegger tries to teach the importance of slow careful reading.

Catweasle:
Slybegger tries to brainwash us with a load of infantile drivel

Stuart:
Some of us seek to follow that advice, even to turn it against Heidegger's
failings.

Catweasle:
Failing? Failings? To read some on this list you'd think he was a saint
instead of a phoney transcendentalist carpet-bagger intent on assisting
Hitler to pervert the minds of German youth.


*******************************************************

"But the "is" - where in all the world am I supposed to find it?". Let's
stay with beings; wanting to think about the "is" "is"
mere quibbling. Or instead I intentionally steer clear of a simple answer to
the question as to where the "is" can be found.

Martin Heidegger. 'Basic Confusions.'
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