Comments

  • Science, Objectivity and Truth?
    Objectivity is a theoretically adoptable disposition that leads many to mistakenly believe that pretending to be on the outside looking in somehow cleanses them of the subjectivity inherent to being where they actually are; there is no outside.
  • What is the semantic difference between "exists" vs "is somewhere now"?
    We have no more reason to believe that natural laws exist than we have reason to believe gods or faeries existMillard J Melnyk

    I agree. We have a habit of attaching labels to what we can not explain and then proceeding as if the label explains all.

    The subconscious of course, transcendence of course, natural law of course. Buzz killers one and all.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    I'm incorrigible, sorry. Imagine not acknowledging his supremacy. World's greatest Nazi, for sure. Philosophy's Fuhrer, as it were.Ciceronianus

    Heidegger was not a good person.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    In division two, Heidegger moves on from average everydayness to talk about authentic angst and time. So even though what you say is true, once we have finished the book, we know about both inauthentic ( average everyday) and authentic Dasein.Joshs

    Heidegger does not equate average everydayness with inauthentic existence. Average everydayness is the context that allows Heidegger to explicate the structure of Dasein. A Dasein living inauthentically has the same structure as a Dasein living authentically. And even the authentically living Dasein lives most of its life in average everydayness. They wake up, fall out of bed, run a comb across their head. . .

    And again and consistent with my original post, "finishing the book" only gets us through 2 parts of an incomplete 6 part project. Having an understanding of the average everydayness of being human and an understanding of what it means to live authentically does not get us to the goal described in what is mistakenly treated as an introduction to Being and Time, the meaning of being.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    Heidegger said that people are the only creatures with a dasein that has a notion of its own dasein.Raymond

    I have not come across Heidegger ever saying that humans are the only beings with Dasein. And if it turned out that other beings had a Dasein, it would matter not to Heidegger. Either you recognize Heidegger's description of the average everydayness of human existence or you don't. If we recognize it, then Heidegger is correct. If we don't recognize it, then Heidegger is incorrect.

    Dasein is far more than consciousness of consciousness. Dasein is easier grasped if understood as a structure within which one makes their way about in the world. Dasein is always in a mood, with a certain understanding, and moving forward in the world in a purposeful manner. And that is the structure of the average everydayness of human being.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    How unfortunate. Do let us know when you find out. G'day.Agent Smith

    You can count on it. I only hope you will do the same.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    Has he a general theory about caring?Raymond

    No. He does not have a general theory about caring. The German care does not have the same emotional and moral connotations as the English care. Again and for Heidegger, care is simply that which motivates and organizes your life. If you care about rocks, you might be well advised to become a geologist. What ever it is that you care about in whatever situation you find yourself is going to go a long way in explaining what you do and why you do it.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    his writings are quite clear with great style180 Proof

    I disagree.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    I don't think that is an accurate interpretation of Heidegger. His concept of care has little to do with morality (perhaps like Heidegger himself?). Instead, I interpret his concept of care to be primarily rooted in the notion that what we do is rooted in what we care about in particular and not that we care in general. We do not organize our lives around caring in general. Instead, we organize our lives around what we care about in particular.

    If one truly cares about white supremacy, then one will be a good Nazi.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    Note N's prescient criticism sixty-something years before:180 Proof

    I like Nietzsche. But he too is no slouch when it comes to offering up obscurity. Much of his reputation is built upon the notion that he must be profound because he is so hard to understand.

    And you know that to be true.

    And I make no claim to understanding Nietzsche in any significant way. Even though I know I have read far more Nietzsche than most people who pretend to understand him, any understanding I do have is rooted primarily in Kaufman's interpretations.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    Being and time. How's Dasein connected to time?Agent Smith

    I have no answer to that question. I am generally confused by Division II of Being and Time.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    I am not a big fan of Heidegger's writings per se. But I am a huge fan of Being and Time. And I also find interesting The Origin of the Work of Art. And his published lectures from the courses immediately preceding and following the publication of Being and Time are helpful. His essay on technology does make one think.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    Heidegger was a despicable man in many ways and his political views and behavior are surely at the top of the list.

    That having been said, any serious philosopher who rejected Heidegger's ontological views because of Heidegger's despicable politics is as much a fool as an engineer who rejected the engineering principles of SS Officer Wernher von Braun.

    If you want to prosecute Heidegger, then by all means prosecute Heidegger. If you are looking for someone to defend Heidegger, I am not that someone. If ordered by a court to defend Heidegger, I would surrender my license to practice law.

    If you are looking for someone to discuss the nature of being that Heidegger pushes, then I am most definitely such a someone.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    I agree. However and so as not to be misquoted or taken out of context, the words you selected to put in quotation marks do not represent my views. Instead, they represent my interpretation of Heidegger's views with which I do not necessarily agree.

    Though I am not convinced that all philosophy is quite as local as you suggest. In fact, I am quite confident that most of the early Greek philosophers considered themselves to be expounding more on being in general rather than Greek being in particular. Though you could be absolutely correct and they could all have been fooling themselves.

    After all, human being is the being that questions being and that is true cross-culturally.

    It is only the answers that vary between cultures.

    And the answers are far less interesting than the questions.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    interesting. In some respects, Heidegger made a living by maintaining that all of Western Philosophy went off the rails by misinterpreting the early Greek philosophers and that he (and he alone?) understood them correctly and could therefore put Western Philosophy back on track.

    In find that sad in that his own ontological views stand quite well on their own and do not depend on everybody else being wrong.
  • Know Thyself, is it the beginning of all wisdom?
    I suggest Socrates would consider wisdom to be rooted in being aware of the limits of your knowledge rather than its extent.
  • Misunderstanding Heidegger
    Dasein is the label Heidegger appropriates and attaches to that being whose mode of being is existence.
  • If Dualism is true, all science is wrong?
    I interpret Cartesian dualism as rooted in extended substance and thinking substance. And as always and given the absolute self sufficiency of the distinct substances, the issue always comes down to how do they interact. And after 400 years of Cartesianism, the answer is always transcendence. And of course transcendence always turns out to be a label we give to some sort of process we cannot explain. Isn't it wonderful?
  • Philosophical Computer
    We agree. However, one can be in search of a "vague" concept/idea - and not necessarily have a clear definition.Don Wade

    I agree. You and I could not even talk about truth (let alone define it) without having at least a vague and average understanding of truth.
  • What's the difference?
    In both pictures, women are covered from head to toe. Yet, one is considered the epitome of virtue and the other is seen as the very definition of oppression.TheMadFool

    depends upon who is doing the seeing. I suspect there are many Muslims (and some of them women) who believe their attire is the epitome of virtue.

    Similarly, I suspect there are many non-theists who consider the habits worn by nuns to be oppressive symbols worn by those most likely raised in oppressive religious environments.

    For the most part, I suspect both groups consider themselves to be virtuously attired.
  • Philosophical Computer
    Searching for truth is not the same as defining truth. How can one search for something they can't define?Don Wade

    and what if you don't see it because it doesn't fit your definition?

    there is a wide range between having an idea of what you are in search of and having a clear definition of what you are in search of.

    searching and defining is an interactive process.

    unless you have already been there, you cannot be certain how it will look until you get there.

    And why would you want to?
  • Did Nietzsche believe that a happy person will be virtuous?
    I question whether Nietzsche thought of "happiness" as a guiding determinant of action. I think righteousness would fit better with Nietzsche than happiness, i.e., the eternal affirmation of life is not outcome dependent.
  • Can we dispense with necessity?
    didn't say it was necessarily true, did I?Bartricks

    You misunderstand.

    I am simply pointing out that logic itself is premised upon what is known as the "law of non-contradiction", i.e., the law of non-contradiction is necessary to logical argument.

    If you will live longer by rejecting the necessity of the law of non-contradiction to logical argument, then go for it.

    I wish you nothing but the best.
  • Philosophical Computer
    How well can anyone define truth in philosophy - yet we still search for it.Don Wade

    Searching for truth is not the same as defining truth.

    And defining truth is not the same as defining philosophy.

    My point remains the same. I suspect your project would be more worthwhile if you let go of the mistaken belief that it's success depends upon a definition of philosophy.

    It is your project, you solicited opinions, I provided mine, and I wish you nothing but success.
  • Can we dispense with necessity?
    I think that if a proposition is true, then it will not also be false.
    You agree, I take it?
    Bartricks

    and that is called the law of non-contradiction. And it is necessary to your entire argument.

    So you have refuted your own argument.
  • Can we dispense with necessity?
    and that is called the law of non-contradiction. And it is necessary to your entire argument.

    So you have refuted your own argument.
  • The self
    a thousand variations on the ghost in the machine
  • Can we dispense with necessity?
    There you go. Turns out you can.Isaac

    Excellent. :-)
  • Can we dispense with necessity?
    your whole argument is premised upon the necessity of the law of non-contradiction.

    Interesting idea though.
  • Philosophical Computer
    if you must first define philosophy before you can simulate philosophy, then you will define philosophy in such way that you can simulate philosophy. And then your computer will be unable to entertain any philosophical notions not contained within its definition. It is the classic garbage in/garbage out dilemma.

    In a Kierkegaardian sense, the inherent dynamics of being (philosophy) are such that it will overflow any box (definition) in which you try to contain it.

    There can be no philosophy if the definition of philosophy is not itself an issue for philosophy.

    And does not the entire project rest upon the unstated presumption that a particular type of entity (human?) is uniquely situated to decide what is and what is not philosophy?

    Interesting topic.
  • Cogito Ergo Sum - Extended?
    in addition, the "I" is not separable from the "I am". There can be no "I" without an "am." Though I suspect there can be an "I" without the "think." In fact, the "I" rarely appears in most of what we do and is generally a post script whose only purpose is to give description of what occurs in its absence.
  • Cogito Ergo Sum - Extended?
    and to what is it reducible since I certainly do more than think. How about you?
  • Cogito Ergo Sum - Extended?
    Actually, I think the original went too far.

    "I am" is a self-sufficient and absolute affirmation of being. You could not "think" or do anything else in regard to "I am" if you were not.

    All else is unnecessarily and arbitrarily rendering asunder what the king's men in all their futility have been trying to put back together for almost 400 years.

    Just saying.
  • Martin Heidegger
    Sorry to have bothered you.