Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 14:35:10 +0000
Subject: Re: the good and the bad
From: michaelP <michael-AT-sandwich-de-sign.co.uk>


on 26/3/04 1:43 pm, Bakker, R.B.M. de at R.B.M.deBakker-AT-uva.nl wrote in
connection with the bloodlusty "courage" of the muslim warriors who mind not
killing anyone whose basic 'type' corresponds to some keyword (western, jew,
israeli, spaniard, etc) they kneejerk to:

> Indeed war is the father of things

Rene, this is a poor poor rendering of Heraclitus' frag: see my discussions
recently with Marilynn on <polemos> and that particular fragment. Polemos is
not war here; things does not properly translate <panton> (rather, the all)
which is a question rather than a simple "things"; the whole of Heidegger &
Fink's 'Heraclitus Seminars' is devoted to explicating just this <ta panta>
and its relation to <en> (the one). And, while we're here, "father" is not
simply the equivalent of "mother" in the infamous "mother of all battles".
As I have attempted to show, <pater> means something more like shows,
begets, produces, determines, brings forth, etc. And to employ Heraclitus to
commune in your celebration of macho thuggery...

I do agree that a cruel honesty is far superior to a soft lier, but your
discrimination seems lacking here (although spot on elsewhere; I don't
expect anything else).

regards

michaelP



     --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---