Greetings all,
I have just subscribed to this list.
I was interested in Trinn's posting about the possibility that
time, or more accurately temporality, functions in Heidegger's writing as
a spiritual, or religious absolute. So, I thought I'd jump in at the deep
end.
I hadn't thought about it before, but once you mentioned it
Triin, it certainly rang true. My feeling about the discussion it has
sparked, is that while engaging, it is a little off the mark, (sorry
Jeff). The question of our 'knowledge' or 'apprehension' of death and of its
possibility is not something I would dismiss, but it does seem a little too
epistemological to me. Are dread or anxiety ways of knowing, which
function to disclose an object or entity, albeit one as ephemeral and
ineffable as death and non-being? Or are they primarily modes of
being?
The problem of the circularity implied by the mutual dependency of
Dasein and Time, is something I take to be a problem only from a traditional
and epistemological point of view. More specifically I don't think any
headway can really be made on this problem while we continue thinking in
object-attribute terms. Heidegger's assertion that Dasein is intentionality,
while an obvious reference to the work of Husserl wipes aside the
noesis/noema type distinctions which characterise the history
of metaphysics he wishes to 'destroy'. My understanding of Heidegger
is that Dasein, like time, is not a thing or an object possessed of certain
qualities or attributes. There is no 'object' which is either time or Dasein,
and so neither time nor Dasein can be discussed in 'objective' terms.
Likewise to try and establish a 'subjective' or 'hermeneutic'
understanding of the relationship between Dasien and time is to imply by
opposition that the 'objective' framework is still exerting and
explanatory force. Is Dasein dependent on temporality, or are each
aspects of one unitary phenomenon? I am not sure there is anything which
could be called a relationship between time and being, for Heidegger,
because the concept of relationship generally entails two 'objectively'
seperate entities.
I think time does serve a religious function in Modernity, and I
will be reading Heidegger with one eye on the possibility that it serves
the same function in his philosophy. I am not sure, however that it does
lead to the dilemma you describe.
(I'll keep a look out for any material on it, and let you know if
I find any.)
Ric Phillips.
uinrjp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---