I was re-reading Heidegger's "Letter On Humanism" and it occured to me
that Heidegger's call for 'a thinking that is not afraid to admit that it does
not know everything' (a paraphrase) is a critique of liberal society and
its glorification of reason (rationality) as the only kind of true thinking.
Is Heidegger hearkening back to a Greek model of thought where thought
included aspects of the Appolonian (the rational) and aspects of the
Dionysian (the creative, the poetic, the mystical)? A thinking where it
is accepted that true thinking is more than the attempt to know everything,
that is, to prove things using rational evidence and argument as the only
means. Is Heidegger asking for a thinking that will once again allow
human beings to use the fullness of their capacities granted to them by
Being? Is Heidegger suggesting that the fulfillment of Being's project, a
project unknowable to Dasein, requires human beings who think, and thus act,
using the entirety of their human attributes, including reason, creativity,
wonder, awe, etc? Is Heidegger suggesting that we have become something less
than human in liberal societies with our tendency to de-value everything
that is not grounded in reason and rationality? Does he think we have lost
something intrinsically human, and is his humanist project designed to call
attention to this fact, and to allow us to act fully human again? I am
working on a dissertation where Heidegger's humanism is one of the elements
to be discussed. Am I on the right track here, or am I way off base?
Greg Coolidge
Dept. of Political Science
University of Cal., Riverside
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
that Heidegger's call for 'a thinking that is not afraid to admit that it does
not know everything' (a paraphrase) is a critique of liberal society and
its glorification of reason (rationality) as the only kind of true thinking.
Is Heidegger hearkening back to a Greek model of thought where thought
included aspects of the Appolonian (the rational) and aspects of the
Dionysian (the creative, the poetic, the mystical)? A thinking where it
is accepted that true thinking is more than the attempt to know everything,
that is, to prove things using rational evidence and argument as the only
means. Is Heidegger asking for a thinking that will once again allow
human beings to use the fullness of their capacities granted to them by
Being? Is Heidegger suggesting that the fulfillment of Being's project, a
project unknowable to Dasein, requires human beings who think, and thus act,
using the entirety of their human attributes, including reason, creativity,
wonder, awe, etc? Is Heidegger suggesting that we have become something less
than human in liberal societies with our tendency to de-value everything
that is not grounded in reason and rationality? Does he think we have lost
something intrinsically human, and is his humanist project designed to call
attention to this fact, and to allow us to act fully human again? I am
working on a dissertation where Heidegger's humanism is one of the elements
to be discussed. Am I on the right track here, or am I way off base?
Greg Coolidge
Dept. of Political Science
University of Cal., Riverside
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---