Instead we will take up a particular metaphysical question. endobj There Heidegger seems to indicate that one loses identity to the extent that one projects into Nothing. endobj Thank you! Indeed, Aristotle's demand in the Metaphysics to know what it is that unites all possible modes of Being (or ‘is-ness’) is, in many ways, the question that ignites and drives Heidegger's philosophy. %���� Here, Heidegger seems to emphasize two features of pure Da-sein: its indefiniteness (in contrast to its definiteness when focused on day-to-day ordinary things) and its activity (in contrast to its being a subject or a thing). In our text, an indication of this occurs about three pages before the end of the “Postscript,” when Heidegger says, in rejecting calculative thought’s relevance to metaphysics, that “Calculative thought places itself under compulsion to master everything in the logical terms of its procedure. In the main body of the essay, Heidegger occasionally uses evaluative terms such as “courageous” (253) to describe those who seek/accept the dread/anxiety and speaks of the “crucial importance” of “letting oneself go into Nothing” (257). " (What Is Metaphysics?, 1929), was an important and influential clarification of what Heidegger meant by being, non-being, and nothingness. Therefore it is that sacrifice brooks no calculation, for calculation always miscalculates sacrifice in terms of the expedient and the inexpedient, no matter whether the aims are set high or low. As Michelle Fram-Cohen suggested, this is a call for self-annihilation. Your submission has been received! (7) a discussion of Being/Nothing’s ethical demands upon us for sacrifice. ), in fact, are copied literally. For this reason it is not ‘you’ or ‘I’ that has the uncanny feeling, but ‘one.’ In the trepidation of this suspense where there is nothing to hold on to, pure Da-sein is all that remains.” The “one” that remains for Heidegger is not a particularized “you” or “I,” but a state of being overwhelmed by Nothing: “The only thing that remains and overwhelms us whilst what-is slips away, is this ‘nothing’” (249). (e) Heidegger speaks of the mysteriousness of deep truth about Being, while for most postmodernists everything is either surface and superficial or able to be exposed by deconstruction. (Here a comparison to Sartre may be helpful: for Sartre, our existence precedes essence, and we define ourselves by the core commitments we make.). It dissolves if it is placed in the cheap acid of merely logical intelligence” (26) and “Logic is an invention of schoolteachers, not of philosophers” (121). Our first whiff of serious Hegelianism, in “The Answer to the Question” section, occurs when Heidegger identifies Nothing with the essence of Being: “Nothing not merely provides the conceptual opposite of what-is but is also an original part of essence. Since one can’t straightforwardly empirically or rationally come to experience or grasp abstractly the essence/ground, Heidegger is non-Aristotelian. That’s not a small thing: my experience leads me to expect Objectivists to be focused and sharp in their analyses, but not to expect such consistent civility. This angst is the metaphysically revelatory state for Heidegger. ". The very idea of ‘logic’ disintegrates in the vortex of a more original questioning” (253). It is to the extent that one is in this state of dread/anxiety that Da-sein reaches its metaphysical ground. Roger Donway, "Heidegger's Attempt to Redeem Metaphysics", Do Heidegger's Arguments Matter? This is for Heidegger more than a metaphysical or phenomenological characterization: it has ethical import. The second instance is the discussion of modern science, as opposed to the science discussed before (258). stream And I was slightly surprised and impressed with everyone’s ability to maintain civility while dealing with a frustrating text and with the unpleasantness of disagreeing with others. The theme of indefiniteness appears on page 249. younger philosophy student, I used to argue vehemently with people who accepted the then very fashionable doctrine of cultural relativism. (1929; What Is Metaphysics? Having rejected reason and logic, Heidegger feels furcht. But then he asserts without argument that perhaps negation (the logical operation) depends upon some other, prior nothing (99). Heidegger explains his choice of “Da-sein” by defining it as follows: “Da-sein means being projected into Nothing” (251). Now, I am not exactly saying that if the arguments don’t matter to Heidegger they shouldn’t matter to us either; but I am saying that, if one tries to engage these people, one should not delude oneself that arguments are primary. (d) Heidegger is doing metaphysics, and speaks of there being a truth out there about the world that we must seek or let find us, while postmodernists are anti-realists, holding that it is meaningless to speak of truths out there or of a language that could capture them. Here man’s will apparently loses its sovereignty. (5) Heidegger on Da-sein. (c) Heidegger’s making emotions, and especially negative emotions, be especially revelatory and central is a precursor to many postmodernists’ dark psychological worlds and their focus on the disturbed, marginalized, and bizarre. Two differences strike me as significant. (d) Finally, there is a mystic/agnostic streak in Heidegger, for in various places he indicates that the ultimate essence/ground is a mystery that will always be beyond the grasp of finite beings. Let me consider together (2) Linguistic problems of Being and Nothing, (3) Rejecting/setting aside logic and reason, and (6) Heidegger’s account of Being and Nothing. He goes on to acknowledge that logic itself rules out the nothing, since thinking can only be of something (99). Or, to put it more precisely, dread holds us in suspense because it makes what-is-in-totality slip away from us. Here is a quick description and cover image of book Heidegger and a Metaphysics of Feeling: Angst and the Finitude of Being written by Sharin N. Elkholy which was published in 2008-10-12.You can read this before Heidegger and a Metaphysics of Feeling: Angst and the … Other page numbers are to the version of “What Is Metaphysics?” that I am working from, the one in Walter Kaufmann’s revised and expanded edition of Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre. For Heidegger, that whole man-centered tradition needed “Destruktion.” Being is not for man; rather man is for Being. ", Essays and Comments on Heidegger's "What Is Metaphysics? Join our monthly informal online discussion for adults ages 18+. Roger Donway and Eyal Mozes discussed extensively the extent to which Heidegger’s characterization of metaphysics is Aristotelian, Objectivist, or neither. Heidegger thus frames the debate the way Objectivists would: the choice is between a rational/logical/Aristotelian metaphysic and a non-rational/non-logical/Christian/Hegelian one. Just how radical a rejection is indicated about halfway through the “Postscript,” where Heidegger tells us why he puts “logic” in scare quotes: “In order to indicate that ‘logic’ is only one exposition of the nature of thinking, and one which, as its name shows, is based on the experience of Being as attained in Greek thought” (261). I would like to point out an interesting process which I observed in “What is Metaphysics.” This process involves three instances of the discussion of man’s relationship to whatever is outside of him, that is, everything else. Thematic Structure of “What Is Metaphysics?”Heidegger’s essay moves from: (1) a characterization of metaphysics that is Aristotelian ontologically but Platonic/mystic epistemologically, to, (2) a consideration of the linguistic problems of discussing Being and Nothing, which leads to, (3) his rejecting or setting aside reason and logic as a means of doing metaphysics, to, 4) the use of emotions such as boredom and dread to access Being and Nothing, to, 5) a discussion of the human being/Da-sein that is involved in this metaphysical enterprise, to. <> Bryan Register, "Getting a Grip on Nothing", 2. We are not to ask why sacrifice is needed, for that would be to seek calculable purposes.

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