Date: Mon, 12 Jun 1995 18:32:03 -0400 (EDT) From: David Jacobs <djacobs-AT-cecasun.utc.edu> Subject: Re: Overcoming and Gianni Vattimo I am not sure if we can say that both Nietzsche and Heidegger have foundations in any traditional sense (i.e., an a-temporal foundation that transcends the historical). Why I think this is that both thinkers, in different ways, maintain their transitional place in the history of thought -- that is, they attempt to remain historical and are more within a foundation than giving one. In section 42 of BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, N. writes that a new species of philosophers is coming up (the free spirits), and though he does call himself this now and then, it seems here that he is a bridge to them in some way. For Heidegger, in "The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking," his place remains preparatory; he writes, "the thinking in question remains unassumming, because its task is only preparatory, not a founding character. [...] Thinking must first learn what remains reserved and in store for it, what it is to get involved in. It prepares its own transformation in this learning" (BASIC WRITINGS, 2nd ed., p. 436). I think both can seen as thinking that their work is a transformation, not building a new foundation. Is this an implicit foundation? Maybe, but both do not attempt in the least to have their foundations taken as the eternal truths; both allow others to surpass their own thinking. In fact, it seems that both want that to occur. I cannot respond directly to Vattimo's ideas; what are your thoughts? David Jacobs --- from list nietzsche-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu --- ------------------
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