Discovery

Discovery

Monday, September 1, 2014

Heidegger on Language - Searching for Perfection - Week 03


What is the meaning, the truth, of Being.
-       The truth of Being is necessary presented in the existence of any entity.
-       Language is not just a tool of man, it is through language that allows us to experience and explore Being.
-       The human world is only possible through language.

The essence of language is primarily associated with our being open to disclosing what it is.
-       Truth is a showing forth of something that presents itself.
-       Presupposes the occurrence of an act.

Aristotle – Rhetoric influenced Heidegger on his views of Being and language.

Metaphysics: Philosophical brand that studies being.

Author is to explore the metaphysics of perfection, that is tied to language, rhetoric and truth.

Animalia Metaphysics:
-       Humans are metaphysical creatures.
-       - Always trying to improve.
-       Correlation between doing good and truth.
-       To be completely at home with ourselves.

Disruptions cause a incompleteness that triggers a metaphysical impulse.
-       The urge for security, familiarity and completeness.

Heidegger viewed that concern for one’s Being is what separated man from animals.
-       We are aware of our Being.
-       Reflection and articulation are the foundation
o   Critical thinking and language.
-       Concern for Being is continual in everyday involvement with things and with others.
-       Reflecting on questions can raise the question of Being.
-       Man can witness being because of reflection and language.

Our Being is more than our own making.
-       The forces of the past and the future are creating events before we are aware of them.
-       Mystery.

Elements of Death are present in Being.
-       There is a presence of Being, and Being that withdraws.
-       Being reveals itself, but it still remains a mystery.
-       We live between existence and nothingness.
o   However, nothingness will always be present.

Language, Truth and Rhetoric

Burke views the resistance of reality to be disclosed as an act of interpretation rather than truth of Being.
-       There are no negatives in nature.
o   Only symbols that represent nothingness.
o   Nothing is as irrational as the square root of -1.
o   Man is the inventor of the negative.

Burke’s notions of perfection of metaphysics comes from Aristotle.
-       things develop towards a perfection or completeness due to its nature.
o   The things essence.

Burke: The use of language is perfectionist.
-       The impulse to use language to define a situation reveals metaphysical perfection.
-       Words are meant to be reflections of reality.
o   But they are also selections.
o   As selections they are also deflections of reality.

Rotten with perfection: When people become close minded to possibilities.

Heidegger’s otherness of Being:
-       Existence, time and place outside our being.
-       We lie relative to our world because of otherness.
-       Something greater than ourselves time/space opens what is not yet.
o   It creates the opening for being to be viewed.

Human existence provides a clearing for Being to present itself to witnesses who can think about what truth it discloses.
-       Represents these truths symbolically
-       And contest their meaning.

Heidegger authenticity: The ability of humans to assume ethical responsibility of affirming their freedom though choice.

Rhetoric is a mechanism to create openings for others to ponder.

Words and symbols must become common in understanding to make itself ordinary.

Any attempt to disclose the truth symbolically presupposes the workings of a more primal process of truth telling.

The call of conscience: existence calls a response and we respond by taking charge by creating our own meaning.

The void of being simultaneously:
-       Presents itself to us
-       And withdraws from us.

This process and the call define the “Being of language” in its primordial state.
-       What lies before us.

Language is the showing of what is.

The essential Being of language is saying as showing.
-       Showing doesn’t use language.

The bringing forth of the truth to our attention.

The saying of our temporal existence:
-       The disclosing of truth and sharing it with others.

The saying of Human Being is informed by rhetorical impulse.

Conscience: The capacity to remain open to and awed and instructed by the happenings and mysteries of life.


Hyde. M. (2007).  Searching for Perfection: Martin Heidegger on Language, Truth, and the Practice of Rhetoric.  In P. Arneson (Ed).  Perspectives on Philosophy of Communication. West Layfayette: Purdue University Press.

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