The Prioritization of Concerns
March 10th, 2008, search relatedRelated posts :: The Prioritization of Concerns :: The Prioritization of Concerns :: The Prioritization of Concerns :: The Prioritization of Concerns
Joseph Polanik wrote:
> is any point that you’ve raised so serious that Heideggerian philosophy
> prohibits asking the ‘what am I?’ question the way I ask it?
>
> for example, you’ve mentioned some presuppositions allegedly made by
> Heidegger, Descartes and/or myself; but, are any of these logically
> necessary, such that someone who makes or doesn’t make a given
> presupposition is not authorized to ask ‘what am I?’?
>
> similarly, is it logically necessary for an inquirer to have an opionion
> as to the various philosophical prioritizations that you’ve mentioned,
> such that someone who has or doesn’t have a given opinion concerning an
> alleged prioritization is not authorized to ask ‘what am I?’?
Someone who does not understand the philosophical prioritization of Them
over *me* will fail to understand that the question “What am I” is NOT
about what we most fundamentally are at all, since “I” am most
fundamentally Them, not me. In other words, they will think that the
question, “What am I?” is philosophically important, when it really isn’t.
> 2. Issues of Relevance
>
> if there are no showstoppers, perhaps you could specify which of the
> points you have raised make a difference to the inquiry in question. is
> the outcome of the inquiry affected in some way by the inquirer’s
> opionion or lack of opinion as to the various philosophical
> prioritizations that you’ve mentioned?
Someone who does not understand the philosophical prioritization of Them
over *me* will doom philosophy to skepticism, idealism, and solipsism,
because the question “What am I?” immediately raises the question of how
I (known first) know about Them (known after me) at all. Every attempt
to philosophically answer the latter question so far has ended up either
dissolving Me (Hume) or dissolving Them into Me (Husserl).
> 3. Other Issues
>
> if there are no showstoppers that prevent the inquiry from getting
> underway and no issues of relevance that affect the outcome of the
> inquiry, perhaps you could specify the way in which the points you have
> raised affects the inquiry.
See above.
