Heidegger

allen scult wrote:

>The scandal of philosophy is that it is by, for and about
>philosophers– those who think, in the narrowest (in a certain sense)
>and most profound sense of the word.

the scandal of philosophy is that some philosophers have tried to make
philosophy about thinking “in the narrowest (in a certain sense) and
most profound sense of the word” by interpreting Descartes as follows:

>This is the thinking Descartes is talking about, the kind of thinking
>which is concerned about existence from the perspective of a particular
>question, namely, how do I know that I exist? Or better, how can I be
>certain that I exist? This question and Descartes’ brilliant (but
>fatally flawed) response could not possibly matter, indeed could not
>even be understood, except by a philosopher, or a student of
>philosophy, for whom Descartes meant his method to be a crucial element
>in the survival of philosophy in the modern age. The maxim to which the
>method leads is not only meant for the thinker who must deal with the
>problem to which the method is a response, but it is also “ABOUT” about
>that thinker. In other words, the thinker who thinks the question.
>Descartes treatise is not about the cognitive capacity to which the
>term thinking usually applies, though it is about an aspect of that
>cognitive capacity, namely the capacity for philosophical thinking; and
>that’s the thinking the maxim refers to–the thinking that thinks
>about, is concerned with, the problem/question to which Descartes
>treatise/maxim is a response.

the weakness of this argument is that it falls apart entirely if one
translates “cogito; ergo, sum” as “I experience; therefore, I am” as
Anscombe and Geach do in translating of Descartes’ _Principles of
Philosophy_.

this translation is more in keeping with what Descartes tells us he
means by ‘thinking’ in the Meditations and elsewhere.

Joe

–

Nothing Unreal is Self-Aware

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Posted on Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 6:00 am
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