Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 19:29:29 +0200
Subject: Re: truth


Michael Eldred wrote:
>Thus Heidegger writes in "Die Frage nach dem Ding": "Denken _ist_ immer als "_ich_ >denke", ego cogito. Darin liegt: ich bin, sum; cogito, sum -- ist die unmittelbar in >dem Satz als solchem liegende oberste Gewissheit: Im "ich setze" ist das "ich" als das >Setzende mit- und vorgesetzt als das schon Vorliegende, als das Seiende. Sein von >Seiendem bestimmt sich aus dem "ich bin" als der Gewissheit des Setzens." (S.81)
> 
>roughly rendered:
>"Thinking _is_ always as "_I_ think", ego cogito. This implies: I am, sum; cogito, sum >-- is the uppermost certainty lying immediately in the postulate as such: In "I >postulate", the "I" as the positing agent is posited along-with and prior-to as that >which already lies present as a being. The being of beings is determined from the "I >am" as the certainty of positing/postulating."

To be more precise than Heidegger, the pronuntiatum (what is posited,
has a position, topos) as such is what makes the _ego sum_ a necessity,
not the other way around. As Nancy says: 

"[...] la verite consiste dans son enonciation, et non dans l'eventuel
contenu ou message de la proposition" (_Ego sum_, 121). 
Roughly: [...] the truth is in his [Descartes's] pronuntiatum and not in
its content or message.

Since the pronuntiatum as such (e.g. "Ego sum, ego existo") is true,
there is an _ego sum_ that Descartes necessarily is. However, Descartes
does not yet fully understand who this _ego_ of _ego sum_ is. 

As is said in GA15:128:
"Heidegger: Wenn gesagt wird: das Haus ist hoch, was ist darin nicht
gedacht? Teilnehmer: Der Denkende."

Roughly: Heidegger: When one says: it is a large house, what is left
unthought [e.g. by the Greeks]? Participant: The one who thinks this.

Till Descartes, the question concerning the sense of the _ego_ of _ego
sum_, was not really asked, nor answered. One might say that Descartes
tries to ask this question, as Heidegger tries to ask the question
concerning the sense of the _sum_ of _ego sum_.

Kindest regards,
Henk



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