Heidegger

Hi folks, some of you-whos might find the following interesting… the link
below should take you to some articles concerning a book by Laurence Paul
Hemming (who I think was once, maybe still, a member of this list?); the
title of the group of articles is “God out of Place? A Book Symposium on
Laurence Paul Hemming¹s Postmodernity¹s Transcending: Devaluing God” and
includes an article by Stuart Elden (who is certainly a member of this
list). The link below enables visitors to download PDFs (Adobe Acrobat
files) of each of the articles and/or a PDF of the entire text.
 http://adss.library.uu.nl/publish/issues…

regards

michaelP

Thanks, the essay on Mitsein, Nancy and such was interesting. The other day
I was reading some books that have been sitting on my shelves and finding
them to be worth reading made me think of how I judge that a book is worth
reading. When you read Heidegger it does something to you. He makes you more
aware that thinking about nothing as a way of being-in-the-world,
transcendence or freedom breaks the usual flow of intentionality so that we
are not so caught up in our own subjective thoughts and therefore are
“outside” ourselves. In Jungian terms the effect of reading a book that is
valued for its ability to take us out of ourselves means that there is an
extroversion of introversion such that we are more attentive or vigilant to
the reality of the details of the here and now. It’s pretty difficult if you
are anything like I am to keep up this level of awareness or presencing (
is this the word?). For the most part I tend to be lost in the play of my
own subjective intentionality so I really value writing that suspends that
flow like Kant who does it in his skepticism towards the judgements of the
understanding when it comes to understand “something” that has no measure
like the sublimity of divine greatness, infinity, and freedom.

For Kant ethics is an unconditional duty that one takes up for its own sake
and not for any kind of interest or value so there is the understanding of
others outside their useful function for whatever. It’s kind of glue at
issue here. The know-how of a sort of, okay embrace, if not the solid grip
of handshake. A ethical comunity bonds on the basis of an uncondititional
duty to others where a person is not approached in terms of utility and
function.

So I sense that the link above is worth reading for these reasons and I was
reading this book that is worth reading and recommended. It’s called “Kant
Trouble” which brings out the addressing of the concerns of the Freemasons
in Kant. At this time they were progressive thinkers which included Goethe,
Lessing, Herder, Fichte. I first started looking more closely at these
thinkers through French writers but this year through some readings on
Mozart. Of interest to me in this book is a further discussion of the
enactment of the foundational moments of a spiritual organization, of an
emerging church or Temple if you will. A temple is the sound foundation of a
healthy and strong ethical community. It requires the cement of law and
order and the ceremonial laying down of a foundational stone from which to
build a structure that remains unfinished and always under construction.
This is the same as the building of a spiritual society. It remains in the
future yet can have a beginning that is always being remembered because we
can be really absent minded and for the most part lack the attentive
vigilance to commemorate a founding event. With this in mind the texts of
the German romantics show more of what is left unspoken. For example, as
quoted in this book, Goethe in his Elective Affinities has this scene where
a Mason during the ceremony of laying the foundational stone says that “this
ceremony is dedicated to the depths. Here within this narrow exacavated
space you do us the honour of appearing as witnesses of our secret labour…
this foundation stone is to be a memorial stone.” To some extent the stone
as I read it is a mnemonic device that reminds us to be vigilant and
therefore cultivate our timeliness, our ability to be fully present without
being lost in distractions and curiosity (for making the invisible visible
say). So the act of foundation is a “series of repetitions” as Morgan
writes. By questioning the possibility of revelation (as Fichte does?), of
seeing the invisible then I honor and guard the mystery of God and continue
to do so in a ritualist manner by always situating myself at an originary
event on the verge of…. Space is given in a kind of letting be that allows
whatever and whoever to pass. If this is a foundational ceremony then it is
also a welcoming ceremony where one makes room for the operation of the holy
spirit.

Tympan

Posted on Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 9:05 pm
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