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Date: Sat, 01 Sep 2001 16:24:30 -0500 From: allen scult <allen.scult-AT-drake.edu> Subject: Heidegger's Voices --Boundary_(ID_yyZieNKqUJNzPdwSNph7Kg) Heidegger might have been one of the few who spoke openly about it, who tried to "think" it, but doesn't the Grundstimmung of philosophy necessarily come to the philosopher in a voice which speaks to him in a language very much his own-- one that can contain the longing to be "homeward ( homeword) bound"? And so Derrida comes to say, "I am monolingual. My monolingualism dwells and I call it my dwelling; it feels like one to me, and I remain in it and inhabit it. It inhabits me. . .an absolute habitat "(1, Monolingualism of the Other; Or the Prosthesis of Origin, trans by Patrick Mensah)." And at the same time, he says " I have only one language, and it is not mine." Notice, Derrida says, " I CALL it my dwelling; it FEELS like one to me, and I remain in it and inhabit it. . . " And yet it is not mine. The Greek and German in which Heidegger hears the Voice of Being ( transcribed originarily by Parmenides , Hoelderlin etc.) has this paradoxical quality of inhabiting him , but not being "his." Only so, can it "speak" to him in the way it does-- as a "call." I get the same feeling about the Hebrew of the Torah, as it is for the rabbinic commentators of the tradition. It seems that only certain languages in certain texts lend themselves to being spoken, heard, and transcribed in this way. This sort of "monolingualism" seems expressedly elitist. Not at all pluralistic. I'm thinking of the objections some people have raised against Rene's insistence on German being the language of Heidegger . As the House of Being, can language be otherwise than insistently mono-linguistic? Allen -- Allen Scult Dept. of Philosophy HOMEPAGE: " Heidegger on Rhetoric and Hermeneutics": Drake University http://www.multimedia2.drake.edu/s/scult/scult.html Des Moines, Iowa 50311 PHONE: 515 271 2869 FAX: 515 271 3826 --Boundary_(ID_yyZieNKqUJNzPdwSNph7Kg)

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Heidegger might have been one of the few who spoke openly about it, who tried to "think" it, but doesn't the Grundstimmung of philosophy necessarily come to the philosopher in a voice which speaks to him in a language very much his own-- one that can contain the longing to be "homeward ( homeword) bound"? And so Derrida comes to say, "I am monolingual. My monolingualism dwells and I call it my dwelling; it feels like one to me, and I remain in it and inhabit it. It inhabits me. . .an absolute habitat "(1, Monolingualism of the Other; Or the Prosthesis of Origin, trans by Patrick Mensah)." And at the same time, he says " I have only one language, and it is not mine." Notice, Derrida says, " I CALL it my dwelling; it FEELS like one to me, and I remain in it and inhabit it. . . " And yet it is not mine.

The Greek and German in which Heidegger hears the Voice of Being ( transcribed originarily by Parmenides , Hoelderlin etc.) has this paradoxical quality of inhabiting him , but not being "his." Only so, can it "speak" to him in the way it does-- as a "call." I get the same feeling about the Hebrew of the Torah, as it is for the rabbinic commentators of the tradition. It seems that only certain languages in certain texts lend themselves to being spoken, heard, and transcribed in this way. This sort of "monolingualism" seems expressedly elitist. Not at all pluralistic. I'm thinking of the objections some people have raised against Rene's insistence on German being the language of Heidegger . As the House of Being, can language be otherwise than insistently mono-linguistic?

Allen

--

Allen Scult

Dept. of Philosophy
HOMEPAGE: " Heidegger on Rhetoric and Hermeneutics": Drake University
http://www.multimedia2.drake.edu/s/scult/scult.html Des Moines, Iowa 50311
PHONE: 515 271 2869
FAX: 515 271 3826

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