Paul Murphy quotes Michael Eldred concerning 'strife' (as a trans-lation of
Heraclitus' polemos):
>>strife, not just among humankind but more chasmically in
>>wresting
>>the sense of beyng, the beyng of beings, etc. from self-concealment
He (Paul) then adds:
>The motif of 'wresting' is one fraught with danger, with its overtones of
>violent struggle (as I suspect it implies a sense of domination / mastery /
>Herrschaft).
clarifications:
It is indeed interesting the way in which circles and spirals develop in
this weave of discourses only to evaporate or repeat themselves like
not-quite-wallpaper-patterns, more like musical pieces (especially of the
minimalist kind). Michael's quote above came about through attempting to
think-again the meaning or sense of Heraclitus' polemos, it having been
daubed by Tom Blancato with overtones of (textual?) violence (with Tom
seeking the ways of non-violence). Michael responded with 'strife' and I
responded in turn with 'setting-apart' (of Being) in its setting-together.
Now we have Paul re-turning with the dangers of violence. Why do the
notions of 'strife-n-struggle' and 'wresting' necessarily bring forth
images of violence? Or domination. I can conceive wresting from
unconcealment as quiet and unobtrusive an accomplishment as a gardener
building a path in a garden through watching the way that things path
(verbal: tread their ways); such path-making reveals the concealed ways of
things. In some sense this gardener has wrested the ways from
unconcealment; in this way the gardener is an (Heideggerian) artist; the
gardener-artist be-ways the ways of being. Where in this is violence or
domination? Surely, the path-making reveals the strifing/struggling that
encompasses the path (the wild-erness); here, techne is the Same as physis
in their differencing&saming in polemos; the struggle is one of balancing,
of way-ing in the balance (sic), not violent opposition or subjugation --
Herrschaft would precisely put an end to strife, would be the equivalent in
my English or Japanese country garden of laying an over-riding concrete
patio (to hell with the ways of things). I am suggesting strongly that
Herrschaft is exactly what polemos is not but without it being opposed to
polemos. The one is not on one side (of what? the gardener's path?) the
other on the other (side, again of what?). If Herrschaft and polemos are in
struggle with each other, then in some sense they are both polemos and
Herrschaft is merely one pole of what is struggling and we have an
enactment of the master-slave dialectic, but this is an other story. I know
I have produced a (non?) concrete image in the gardener's path: I hope that
all will see it as precisely that. Nonetheless it might help reveal (a
revealing).
The struggle in Heraclitus' polemos is what keeps things together and sets
things apart: Being.
Herrschaft and force of violence is precisely what terminates Be-ing with a
Done or a None.
The garden needs tending, the path needs wresting, the hedge needs hedging,
my fingers are tired.
Pain in my heart, won't let me Be...
MP
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
Heraclitus' polemos):
>>strife, not just among humankind but more chasmically in
>>wresting
>>the sense of beyng, the beyng of beings, etc. from self-concealment
He (Paul) then adds:
>The motif of 'wresting' is one fraught with danger, with its overtones of
>violent struggle (as I suspect it implies a sense of domination / mastery /
>Herrschaft).
clarifications:
It is indeed interesting the way in which circles and spirals develop in
this weave of discourses only to evaporate or repeat themselves like
not-quite-wallpaper-patterns, more like musical pieces (especially of the
minimalist kind). Michael's quote above came about through attempting to
think-again the meaning or sense of Heraclitus' polemos, it having been
daubed by Tom Blancato with overtones of (textual?) violence (with Tom
seeking the ways of non-violence). Michael responded with 'strife' and I
responded in turn with 'setting-apart' (of Being) in its setting-together.
Now we have Paul re-turning with the dangers of violence. Why do the
notions of 'strife-n-struggle' and 'wresting' necessarily bring forth
images of violence? Or domination. I can conceive wresting from
unconcealment as quiet and unobtrusive an accomplishment as a gardener
building a path in a garden through watching the way that things path
(verbal: tread their ways); such path-making reveals the concealed ways of
things. In some sense this gardener has wrested the ways from
unconcealment; in this way the gardener is an (Heideggerian) artist; the
gardener-artist be-ways the ways of being. Where in this is violence or
domination? Surely, the path-making reveals the strifing/struggling that
encompasses the path (the wild-erness); here, techne is the Same as physis
in their differencing&saming in polemos; the struggle is one of balancing,
of way-ing in the balance (sic), not violent opposition or subjugation --
Herrschaft would precisely put an end to strife, would be the equivalent in
my English or Japanese country garden of laying an over-riding concrete
patio (to hell with the ways of things). I am suggesting strongly that
Herrschaft is exactly what polemos is not but without it being opposed to
polemos. The one is not on one side (of what? the gardener's path?) the
other on the other (side, again of what?). If Herrschaft and polemos are in
struggle with each other, then in some sense they are both polemos and
Herrschaft is merely one pole of what is struggling and we have an
enactment of the master-slave dialectic, but this is an other story. I know
I have produced a (non?) concrete image in the gardener's path: I hope that
all will see it as precisely that. Nonetheless it might help reveal (a
revealing).
The struggle in Heraclitus' polemos is what keeps things together and sets
things apart: Being.
Herrschaft and force of violence is precisely what terminates Be-ing with a
Done or a None.
The garden needs tending, the path needs wresting, the hedge needs hedging,
my fingers are tired.
Pain in my heart, won't let me Be...
MP
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---