Heidegger

In a message dated 1/18/2008 6:18:47 AM Eastern Standard Time,
artefact at t-online.de writes:

“Der Bezug der Griechen zu den Göttern ist überdies ein _Wissen_ und nicht
ein ‘Glauben’ im Sinne eines willentlichen Fürwährhaltens aufgrund autoritativer
Verkündigung. Wir ermessen es noch nicht, in welch anfänglicher Weise die
Griechen die Wissenden gewesen. Weil sie es gewesen, deshalb fanden sie den
Anfang des eigentlichen Denkens. Nicht etwa waren sie Wissende, weil
sie eine Philosophie besaßen.” (Heidegger, Gesamtausgabe Bd. 55 S.15
“Heraklit”)

“The relationship of the Greeks to the gods is moreover a _knowledge_ and not
a ‘faith’ in the sense of a deliberate holding-to-be-true on the basis of an
authoritative annunciation. We do not yet fathom in which incipient way the
Greeks were the knowing ones. Because they were, they found the beginning of
authentic thinking. They were not knowing just because they had a philosophy..”

Dear MichaelE;
That is a half-truth. The Greek pantheon was hardly a religion in terms of
sacra qua the profane but more a media presentation in the exact sense of
Hollywood media personae and appreciated as such from a socially fixed superficial
level. On the other hand, the Eleusinian Mysteries was a sacred initiatory
(mystes) religious process dedicated to chthonios and the Demeter/Kore and which,
as such, was antithetical to “authentic thinking” and its alienated forms
retained by Sophists and now Heidegger & co. Apparently Socrates qua Plato was
aware of this and forced to take the hemlock for letting the cat out of the bag.
I would expect, at least for the contemporary moment *in sein* and *out of
zeit* that authentic thinkers do as did Socrates and let their pussies out of
the bag.
Sincerely;
Bernard

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Posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
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