Cologne, 14 July 1996
I can see what Michael Pennamacoor is worried about, and I can see what Paul
Murphy is worried about regarding the rendering of Verwindung.
So, over a couple of good bottles of red, I consulted Dr Astrid Nettling,
drawing on her feel for the language and the 33-volume Grimm Woerterbuch.
Astrid says that Verwindung and the Hegelian Aufhebung are close together.
Aufhebung in Hegel's hands takes on nuances it does not have in natural language
(conserve, do away with, elevate). I think the same is true of Heidegger's use
of Verwindung.
In Grimm the long entry under Verwinden offers something:
Verwinden as "withdraw from the influence of something, not give way to
something".
The most usual meaning is: "to overcome something in its consequences, to get
over: resarcire, recuperare, reconcinnare"
So, in natural language, ueberwinden and verwinden are synonymous. "darueber
hinwegkommen". Thinking has to make a difference here, a cut.
Overcome with grief at the loss of someone, I slowly get over it. At first the
grief overwhelms me, I cannot withstand the loss and give way to it. I twist in
pain. (Ich winde mich vor Schmerz.) But with time I learn to bear to presence of
the absence (the loss) without being overwhelmed by it. I no longer give way to
the pain, am no longer twisted in grief, but straighten up, i.e. come to stand,
in my existence once again. The pain is not abolished, however.
In English too, it seems to me that getting-over has this nuance of not getting
rid of and forgetting. There is something wistful about getting-over, a mastery
(Hegel), but not in the manner of a sovereign, rather: a humble mastering. The
pain remains, even though one gets over the loss.
Heidegger quotes Trakl's *Ein Winterabend* in *Die Sprache*:
"Schmerz versteinerte die Schwelle."
"Pain petrifed the threshold."
The threshold withstands as point of transition. This is also painful, and calls
for not giving way.
So getting-over is not like the flyover on the expressway, at least. Isn't there
something wistful in getting over metaphysics? Is Verwindung der Metaphysik
thinking's twisting itself into another relationship towards metaphysics, not
giving way to it, but also not abolishing it? Does the Hegelian element of
*abolition*, *getting-rid-of* in Aufhebung disappear from Verwindung?
Jan Straathof mentioned Verwindung der technischen Welt as one aspect of getting
over metaphysics. The technical world is not abolished, but it is twisted from
domination into servitude by humankind coming to belong to the event. This is
the way to get over the technical world, but not to overcome it.
So, at the moment I cannot see any neat, compact solution for getting
Ueberwindung/Verwindung across.
An addendum: Paul Murphy asked recently about Reiner Schuermann's insistence on
a shift in Heidegger's thinking from aletheiology to a topology. I haven't read
Schuermann's book on this, but it does smack a bit of mere taxonomy. As we have
seen recently, the leap is present in H. at an early stage. The "shift in
location", a topological motif, presents itself from 1929-30 on. The
interpretation of Plato's Hoehlengleichnis is *topological*, for example.
Cheers,
Michael
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