> > (I know Heidegger wants to get at something primordial that makes
> > assertions possible. Too often this is a wrong turn for him: into
> > gnosticism. But his assaults on metaphysics are refreshing and a
> > stimulus to think the matter itself for ourselves.)
>
> Chris, I'm intrigued by your comment about Heidegger and
> gnosticism, but I'm not sure I understand it. How does Heidegger's
> attempt to get at something primordial that makes assertions possible
lead
> him into gnosticism? Or perhaps what I'm asking is: What do you mean by
> 'gnosticism'?--the term is used so frequently in so many different
> contexts that I'm never quite sure what it intimates....
I understand it pretty much as explained in "Science, Politics and
Gnosticism" by Eric Voegelin in the introduction:
"The experience of the world as an alien place into which man has strayed
and from which he must find his way back home to the other world of his
origin." He quotes Clement of Alexandria's record of the formula of ancient
gnosticism: Gnosis is "the knowledge of who we were and what we became, of
where we were and whereinto we have been flung, of whereto we are hastening
and wherefrom we are redeemed, of what birth is and what rebirth."
Sounds like Heidegger's history of Being to me!
This flight into gnosticism occurs because by overcoming metaphysics (the
tradition that investigates the truth of assertions) there is nothing left.
And so faced with nothing there is only the privileged few who can face
nothing and create "whereto we are hastening" and our "rebirth".
Let me quote Stanley Rosen from "The Question of Being" (p. 310) arguing
against what I believe is the act that makes Heidegger gnostic (his leap
>from reason into the primordial event):
"Why does Heidegger use the expression 'abandonment of Being'? ... it is
Being that abandons humankind. This abandonment does not occur out of anger
or vengeance; it is intrinsic to the way in which Being offers itself.
Being can only offer itself in a concealed manner, namely, through beings.
... [T]his fundamental necessity will never change, so long as intelligent
creatures exist, because the gift of a pure presencing-process that
presents us with nothing is a gift that is intrinsically impossible for
intelligence to receive. It is not the forgetfulness of Being that enforces
this necessity, but the nature of thinking. We cannot think except by
thinking something; to think a process, such as the presencing of Being, is
itself to think something: this particular process as opposed to what is
presented by that process."
So, while the Heideggerians think they are leaping into the nothing, they
end up having to think something and usually this is just low-grade 20th
century gnosticism (a muddle of arcane terminology) with the usual
Antichrist pose to justify their own petty immorality. The measure of the
true philosopher will always be Socrates, who spoke plainly and sought
above all to live a moral life.
Chris Morrissey
More C Communications Inc.
a Microsoft Solution Provider
http://www.moreC.com voice or fax 604.877.7731
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
> > assertions possible. Too often this is a wrong turn for him: into
> > gnosticism. But his assaults on metaphysics are refreshing and a
> > stimulus to think the matter itself for ourselves.)
>
> Chris, I'm intrigued by your comment about Heidegger and
> gnosticism, but I'm not sure I understand it. How does Heidegger's
> attempt to get at something primordial that makes assertions possible
lead
> him into gnosticism? Or perhaps what I'm asking is: What do you mean by
> 'gnosticism'?--the term is used so frequently in so many different
> contexts that I'm never quite sure what it intimates....
I understand it pretty much as explained in "Science, Politics and
Gnosticism" by Eric Voegelin in the introduction:
"The experience of the world as an alien place into which man has strayed
and from which he must find his way back home to the other world of his
origin." He quotes Clement of Alexandria's record of the formula of ancient
gnosticism: Gnosis is "the knowledge of who we were and what we became, of
where we were and whereinto we have been flung, of whereto we are hastening
and wherefrom we are redeemed, of what birth is and what rebirth."
Sounds like Heidegger's history of Being to me!
This flight into gnosticism occurs because by overcoming metaphysics (the
tradition that investigates the truth of assertions) there is nothing left.
And so faced with nothing there is only the privileged few who can face
nothing and create "whereto we are hastening" and our "rebirth".
Let me quote Stanley Rosen from "The Question of Being" (p. 310) arguing
against what I believe is the act that makes Heidegger gnostic (his leap
>from reason into the primordial event):
"Why does Heidegger use the expression 'abandonment of Being'? ... it is
Being that abandons humankind. This abandonment does not occur out of anger
or vengeance; it is intrinsic to the way in which Being offers itself.
Being can only offer itself in a concealed manner, namely, through beings.
... [T]his fundamental necessity will never change, so long as intelligent
creatures exist, because the gift of a pure presencing-process that
presents us with nothing is a gift that is intrinsically impossible for
intelligence to receive. It is not the forgetfulness of Being that enforces
this necessity, but the nature of thinking. We cannot think except by
thinking something; to think a process, such as the presencing of Being, is
itself to think something: this particular process as opposed to what is
presented by that process."
So, while the Heideggerians think they are leaping into the nothing, they
end up having to think something and usually this is just low-grade 20th
century gnosticism (a muddle of arcane terminology) with the usual
Antichrist pose to justify their own petty immorality. The measure of the
true philosopher will always be Socrates, who spoke plainly and sought
above all to live a moral life.
Chris Morrissey
More C Communications Inc.
a Microsoft Solution Provider
http://www.moreC.com voice or fax 604.877.7731
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---