Heidegger

In a message dated 31/12/2006 05:58:57 GMT Standard Time,
michael at sandwich-de-sign.co.uk writes:
From: GEVANS613 at aol.com
To: heidegger at soca.ecu.edu.au
Subject: Re: NOTHING IS NEXT TO DEATH & TRUTH & GOD & THE ABSOLUTE
Date: Sun, Dec 31, 2006, 1:42 am

And when I hear the name Heidegger, I reach for my axe. He may have
swiped it

–John McCarthey

Ah, but when I hear Heidegger, I reach for my Mahler, my Rilke, my
Heraclitus… a chorus singing the music of the spheres: much more fun.

–michaelP

Jud, sweetness, you see I sign myself with the double hyphen just like John
above because I am responding to his quote, and I do not address you at
all… it’s just the quote I responded to arose in your post.

Jud:
Tut-tut Michael old bean - you have just done something for which you have
this very day just criticised me.
In your usual haste to rapidly demonstrate your enormous sophistic wit and
impressive cultural affinities and appetites
you have not noticed that your respondent is somebody else [alas now lost
and gone for ever into the black hole of my recyle-bin]
A little less speed and a little more concentration perhaps in the new year?
;-)

Jud, honeypot, I didn’t attribute the McCarthey quote to you (see above),
rather it arose in a message you wrote nonetheless leaving the quote in tact
(itself quoted by Les Smith): see the entire message below… [I never throw
messages to the list away, you never know…]. Sorry for any confusion.

strange but I don’t need Heidegger in order to reach for my reach for my
Mahler, my Rilke, my Heraclitus - is that unusual?

Neither do I but when I hear Heidegger (not the word, mark you) the others
are already (t)here within my reach (i.e., they belong together like singers
in an opera, at least to my ears).

Possibly either of the two following might be of some assistance?

Thanks but no thanks, my eyes are fine (at least with the reading glasses
for assistance).

01227 362495 Mortley A H
42 King St Sandwich, CT13 9BL

01304 612168 Moore R & J Ltd
16a King St Sandwich, CT13 9BT

regards,

Jud Evans.

The entire message I responded to as promised, sent by you today at 1.42pm
in response to Les where you suggest he go to one of your site items (”go
here…”):
—————————————————————————-
In a message dated 31/12/2006 01:33:30 GMT Standard Time,
leesmithjr at comporium.net writes:

Go here

_http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/heideggerscat.htm_
 http://evans-experientialism.freewebspac…)

 http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_…)

The story of Schroedinger’s cat (an epic poem)

Dear Cecil:

Cecil, you’re my final hope
Of finding out the true Straight Dope
For I have been reading of Schroedinger’s cat
But none of my cats are at all like that.
This unusual animal (so it is said)
Is simultaneously live and dead!
What I don’t understand is just why he
Can’t be one or other, unquestionably.
My future now hangs in between eigenstates.
In one I’m enlightened, the other I ain’t.
If you understand, Cecil, then show me the way
And rescue my psyche from quantum decay.
But if this queer thing has perplexed even you,
Then I will and won’t see you in Schroedinger’s zoo.
–Randy F., Chicago

Dear Randy:

Schroedinger, Erwin! Professor of physics!
Wrote daring equations! Confounded his critics!
(Not bad, he? Don’t worry. This part of the verse
Starts off pretty good, but it gets a lot worse.)
Win saw that the theory that Newton’d invented
By Einstein’s discov’ries had been badly dented.
What now? Wailed his colleagues. Said Erwin, “Don’t panic,
No grease monkey I, but a quantum mechanic.
Consider electrons. Now, these teeny articles
Are sometimes like waves, and then sometimes like particles.
If that’s not confusing, the nuclear dance
Of electrons and suchlike is governed by chance!
No sweat, though–my theory permits us to judge
Where some of ‘em is and the rest of ‘em was.”
Not everyone bought this. It threatened to wreck
The comforting linkage of cause and effect.
E’en Einstein had doubts, and so Schroedinger tried
To tell him what quantum mechanics implied.
Said Win to Al, “Brother, suppose we’ve a cat,
And inside a tube we have put that cat at–
Along with a solitaire deck and some Fritos,
A bottle of Night Train, a couple mosquitoes
(Or something else rhyming) and, oh, if you got ‘em,
One vial prussic acid, one decaying ottom
Or atom–whatever–but when it emits,
A trigger device blasts the vial into bits
Which snuffs our poor kitty. The odds of this crime
Are 50 to 50 per hour each time.
The cylinder’s sealed. The hour’s passed away. Is
Our pussy still purring–or pushing up daisies?
Now, you’d say the cat either lives or it don’t
But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won’t.
Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke),
Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked.
To some this may seem a ridiculous split,
But quantum mechanics must answer, “Tough @#&!
We may not know much, but one thing’s of sho’:
There’s things in the cosmos that we cannot know.
Shine light on electrons–you’ll cause them to swerve.
The act of observing disturbs the observed–
Which ruins your test. But then if there’s no testing
To see if a particle’s moving or resting
Why try to conjecture? Pure useless endeavor!
We know probability–certainty, never.’
The effect of this notion? I very much fear
‘Twill make doubtful all things that were formerly clear.
Till soon the cat doctors will say in reports,
“We’ve just flipped a coin and we’ve learned he’s a corpse.”‘
So saith Herr Erwin. Quoth Albert, “You’re nuts”.
God doesn’t play dice with the universe, putz.
I’ll prove it!” he said, and the Lord knows he tried–
In vain–until fin’ly he more or less died.
Win spoke at the funeral: “Listen, dear friends,
Sweet Al was my buddy. I must make amends.
Though he doubted my theory, I’ll say of this saint:
Ten-to-one he’s in heaven–but five bucks says he ain’t.”

–Cecil Adams
_http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_122.html_
 http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_…)
’ÄúSince boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder,
then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced
back
to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they
created human beings’Äù… ’ÄúLife can only be understood backwards; but it
must be
lived forwards.’Äù

–Soren Kierkegaard

’Äú…And when I hear the name Heidegger, I reach for my axe. He may have
swiped it.’Äù

–John McCarthey

 http://www.incredimail.com/index.asp?id=…)

Posted on Sunday, December 31st, 2006 at 4:30 pm
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