Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 20:55:53 +0100 From: artefact-AT-t-online.de (Michael Eldred) Subject: Re: Zollikon: Unconscious Cologne 16-Nov-2001 Michael Staples schrieb Fri, 16 Nov 2001 06:13:46 -0800: > Michael, > > What is the issue with metaphorical meanings vs. literal meanings? > > Michael, The issue is how language is to be understood and how we dwell in language. The distinction between literal and metaphorical meanings comes ultimately from Platonic metaphysics in which the sensuously given being lying before us in the present is distinguished from its true being in the idea. Literal meanings refer accordingly to the palpable, concrete object of sensuous perception, whereas metaphorical meanings point to the transcendent realm of the ideas. The way in which metaphorical meanings are talked about today is pretty much an inversion of this scheme: the concretely present, sensuous being is 'real' and factual, whereas the metaphorical meaning is a kind of emblematic image derived from the real, sensuous, present object with a non-objective, i.e. untrue, merely subjective or 'poetic' status. Because the metaphors are taken in some vague way as merely poetic images, and thus as second-rate, from the start, it allows all sorts of license with metaphors, which can be stretched and twisted at will. One is then dispensed from any kind of precise thinking. But if one takes language as pointing to the phenomena themselves and admits that sensuously given phenomena are just one sort of phenomenon, then each word has to be taken seriously in itself in its indicating. This compels us to take more care with words, to give each word its own specific weight and to think carefully about and listen to what each one points to. Only in this way can poetic words too regain their full dignity and weight and not be treated as mere 'imagery'. Michael _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- artefact text and translation _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- made by art _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ http://www.webcom.com/artefact/ _-_-_-_-_-_- artefact-AT-webcom.com _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Dr Michael Eldred -_-_- _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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