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
>

How about Meditation III, “On God, That he Exists,” In this
Meditation, and those immediately following, Descartes is at great
pains to discount and discredit experience (of the senses, which is
essentially how we “take in” world) as being illusory and therefore
incapable of serving as the ground for proving anything. As the
argument unfolds, experience is left behind. This leaving behind is
achieved by reason, a process of thinking, which leaves thinking
itself as the only certainty left standing, and thank God , capable
of proving the existence of God to itself. A kind of Cartesian
hermeneutical circle, if you will.

Descartes begins the Meditation by leading the reader (”I close my
eyes . . .”), who is willing to follow, to the place of thinking.
Arriving at this place, he declares for all of us in the group, “I
am a thing that thinks.” The only way that this makes sense is as
an announcement of arrival, having put sense experience to the side
“or, as that is not always possible to devalue it”(devaluing
irrelevant thoughts and images and just “watching them pass by,
paying them no attention, is also a method of focusing the mind in
Zen meditation), and so be left with the essence of our being. “I
am a thing that thinks.” For a thing that thinks, thinking is
existence ( a way some imaginative philosophers of my acquaintance
think Descartes’ “unthought thought” in the Cogito. I like that, for
obviously biased reasons.

Although true of most philosophers, Descartes and Heidegger are
strong examples( Plato, of course is another)showing how philosophers
do philosophy by teaching the student how to think(in the narrow and
most profound sense of the word). What about the others, those who
don’t choose to, or can’t think? Heidegger doesn’t have very kind
things to say about how they fit into the scheme of things except as
“the other” to authentically being oneself.But I think Heraclitus
does: “Even those who sleep have a place in the world.”

Allen

thinkingOne of the sweetest ways of understanding the Cogito from
this perThinking, as Descartes’ shows it to be, points the way to
certainty of the existence of God.which to Descartes means {and
thereby let it pass. This was a method of focus I remember from Zen
meditation, where the teacher told us to just let irrelevant images
and thoughts go by paying them no attention)thoughts the conclusion
of order to certify the existence of anything, we must begin with
that which can’t be doubted, namely, “I am a thing that thinks,”
perhaps best understood

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