Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 02:17:18 +0800
Subject: Re: Being and Time-section one



On Monday, March 17, 2003, at 12:36  AM, Paul Murphy wrote:

> In thought we attain being - cogito ergo sum.  What is
> Heidegger's addition to Cartesian wisdom?

The entirety of Being and Time is in a sense a critique of this 
Cartesian proposition. The equation of thought with being is just 
another gloss in the history of philosophy, and  for Heidegger 
Descartes' notion of human being as a rational animal exemplifies a 
traditional metaphysics of subjectivity.

I'd say we're definitely looking for something else here, and I think 
if you've the mind to you can find it in a big mac as much as in the 
self-reflexive assertion of your own cognitive existence. We could go 
on indefinitely here, being is 'consciousness', being is 'thought', 
being is... a cheeseburger, coke and (freedom!) fries.

Heidegger's question is explicitly about being qua being. Before he 
asks it he'll have to set up just how we might even begin to approach a 
definition of being in terms of 'being', rather than something else. 
That's the job of the introduction to BT but we're only 4 pages in, and 
already it's getting interesting  :)

Cheers,

Malcolm



     --- from list heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---