Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 09:32:01 +0200
Subject: Re: language and being


Allen Scult wrote:
> 
> I wonder if anyone has a "take" ( appropriated or otherwise) on the
> following passage which provoked me (from 63 of BT):
> 
> "Man's relation to language could transform itself analogously to the
> change of the relation to being."

Allen, the text reads in German:

Das Verhaeltnis der Menschen zur Sprache koennte sich aber analog dem
Wandel des Verhaeltnisses zum Sein verwandeln ("Zur Sache des Denkens",
p 55).

We find this text in the minutes of a lecture on "Time and Being".
Someone seems to have asked Heidegger if the language of thinking
(_Sprache des Denkens_) is able to show man the limits of metaphysical
language. Heidegger seems to have answered that it depends on the saying
(_Sagen_). 

In the lecture "Zeit und Sein" itself, Heidegger points out that man may
change his relation to Being if he is able to think Being as such - i.e.
not in relation to beings, nor striving to overcome metaphysics (cf. p
25). 

Being as such is not metaphysical.

Nor is natural language (_natuerliche Sprache_); only, the
interpretation of ordinary language (_gewoehnliche Sprache_) is
metaphysical - following Heidegger (cf. p 55).  
    
Kindest regards,
Henk



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