Heidegger

In a message dated 30/07/2006 11:49:54 GMT Standard Time,
R.B.M.deBakker at uva.nl writes:

Rene writes:
I better say it to you: if Being is written differently or crossed out, it
is Dasein which enters the danger zone.
Once more: Being crossed out means: you are crossed out.

Rene - you lovable old Don Quixote of La Amster,
In your words above you touch upon and reiterate the most notorious
misunderstanding in all of human thinking - a imbroglio deliberately *talked up* and
reiterated ad nauseam by *the great unquestioner* Heidegger that continues to
befoul philosophy to this day.
Whilst the word *life* describes a condition or *state,* of being alive,
generally speaking the word means the organic phenomenon that distinguishes
living organisms from non-living ones. It refers to causal objects [humans] which
manifest the condition of the living, or the state of being alive with the
various degrees of animation [change and movement and vivacity] which is
characteristic of such causal objects.

*Existence* or *Being* on the other hand has nothing at all to do with real
*life* or *inanimacy* but refers to the non-specific [un-modal] FACT of
existing. In other words the word could be replaced by the word PRESENCE and
still make sense, whereas the word *LIFE* could NOT be replaced by the word
presence and still make sense. To be present in the cosmos does not require
something to be alive - the headstone on Heidegger’s grave is present in the
cosmos - but it is not alive.

A newly-dead body exists and is present in the cosmos, but it is not alive.
In other words you are falling into the dreaded logical/illogical trap of
attributing an additional *spiritous or mentalistic dualism* to living or dead
material by positing an *ontological difference,* and in the case of a living
human crediting the FACT that such a human is alive and experiencing the
world, as something that *inheres* in or *belongs* to the human being.
I have even come across the phrase: *His Being,* or *His existence,* as if
the very FACT of someone being alive can be in some way be *possessed* by him
or her as some variety of spirituous asset or property.

The belief of such people afflicted with this curious mental aberration
[which is so bizarre there MUST be a gene responsible for it] is that for them an
object exists AND IN ADDITION to the fact that it exists they insist upon
reifying that FACT into a quasi-object in itself, which they claim is also
present in the world and can be discussed, talked about, referred to and
phenomenologically evaluated, etc., , etc.

So the population of the world is magically and phenomenologically
reduplicated and divided into two different types of populace - the blood and bone
type and an accompanying ethereal version. So we have the flesh and blood
population of the USA [for example] which now consists of 298,444,215 living,
breathing Americans, and the 298,444,215 ungazetteered *Beings* of those
Americans. Whilst these Heideggerian abstractions do not receive senior citizen
pensions when their corporeal owner reaches 65, they certainly exert a great
strain upon the rest of philosophical society which is subjected to the
never-ending tall-tales and gripping yarns of these mentalistic wraiths as they bomb
Baghdad and march into Poland.

So take two list members - ones perhaps that we all know well. One is in
Holland and one is in Texas. Now if they are where they say they are - their
*existences* can’t be there too can they? One can only be in one place at one
time in Britain, and one cannot be in the same place twice at the same time
either - so why should it be any different in any other country?

One consolation - you have lots of lovely wind-mills to tilt at as
[long-locks flying in the wind] you ride your bicycle along those breezy canal-banks
with the the name *Realist Rocinante* emblazoned in gold-glitter along the
fluted and filigreed cross-bar.

regards,

Jud Evans.
Personal Website: http://evans-experientialism.freewebspac…

Posted on Sunday, July 30th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
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