>Return-Path: <owner-heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 22:31:24 GMT
>To: rwendel@xxxxxx
>From: Majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Welcome to heidegger
>Reply-To: Majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>--
>
>Welcome to the heidegger mailing list!
>
Sounds good to me!
Hi! What's happening? My name is Robert A. Wendel. I've been on this list
for five days now and no messages have come in. So I'm testing the waters!
Please indulge me!
Quite frankly I'm interested in the political implications of Heidegger's
philosophy. A task not easily broached, bridged, except on the brink as some
would say. I'm referring to Johannes Fritsche's article "On Brinks and
Bridges in Heidegger" in Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal V.18 No.1 that
trapped me on a Sunday afternoon reading and snuffed my philosophical joy
not long ago. That essay trapped me, ensnared me like a hunted animal. It
surprised me like an ambush well placed. Why? Because Fritsche does not
trouble much with stating his purpose. The reader is asked for indulgence -
after all it's an essay on Heidegger. He will write about Brinks and Bridges
in Heidegger extending accross a couple of Heidegger's writings. Wonderful!
Perhaps Dr. Fritsche is too ashamed to tell us the purpose or too afraid his
readers will not wish to follow him. The topic is either too painful or
overwrought. In my case, I think it was both. And his tactic proved
effective with me. I would not have read his words had I known, and once I
knew I felt obliged to finish. Kind of like going to a movie it's just too
impolite to leave even as one realizes one does not wish to see any more. Do
I wish to say this essay and others like it are unworthy? It's too late to
say. I have come too late or not at all to pass any judgements. You see it's
not my field. I'm a marginal element looking in. Perhaps I would not have
had it otherwise. But it goes beyond my situation, while allowing me as
marginal to perhaps comment more freely or at least to comment differently
from the dissonant unison I hear canibalistically celebrating on the
spiritual corpse of Heidegger, perhaps be it of philosophy itself. The pain
of this dissonance is implicated maybe more acutely for me in that I studied
with scholars at a time when one did not talk so freely about Heidegger in
the kind of terms that today are soooo endearing in academic circles. In the
very academic circles in which my teachers taught. So they are gone and now
we have a new generation. I situate myself on the margins of this new
generation. I refuse to partake of this philosphical corpus or corpse.
Shall I be nothing more then but a spectator or spectre? So be it.
So I have confessed. Perhaps I've been too candid for many. What have I
confessed? A certain astonishment in the face of the raging accusations
around the figure of Heidegger that stands like a Medusas' countenance one
dare no longer look at. Perhaps its this that keeps you silent on this list?
Am I awakening sleeping lions? I hope so! It is time to roar! To show some
rage! I do not wish to be a lonely voice in a wilderness. Better is the
cacophony of this dissonance than the silence of shock and dismay. Let us
gather around this countenance and ask what comes of this disfigurement of
Heidegger. I for one will seek another voice in this dissonance. Beyond this
pettiness I feel too close, too comfortable, too appropriate, and too
decent. Yes, too "politically correct", as that is what its called now. But
I will not judge. I will only raise my voice and question. Perhaps there are
some amomg you who will uncynically understand why I quote:
But where danger is, grows
The saving power also.
See ya
Bob W.
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
------------------
>Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 22:31:24 GMT
>To: rwendel@xxxxxx
>From: Majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Welcome to heidegger
>Reply-To: Majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>--
>
>Welcome to the heidegger mailing list!
>
Sounds good to me!
Hi! What's happening? My name is Robert A. Wendel. I've been on this list
for five days now and no messages have come in. So I'm testing the waters!
Please indulge me!
Quite frankly I'm interested in the political implications of Heidegger's
philosophy. A task not easily broached, bridged, except on the brink as some
would say. I'm referring to Johannes Fritsche's article "On Brinks and
Bridges in Heidegger" in Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal V.18 No.1 that
trapped me on a Sunday afternoon reading and snuffed my philosophical joy
not long ago. That essay trapped me, ensnared me like a hunted animal. It
surprised me like an ambush well placed. Why? Because Fritsche does not
trouble much with stating his purpose. The reader is asked for indulgence -
after all it's an essay on Heidegger. He will write about Brinks and Bridges
in Heidegger extending accross a couple of Heidegger's writings. Wonderful!
Perhaps Dr. Fritsche is too ashamed to tell us the purpose or too afraid his
readers will not wish to follow him. The topic is either too painful or
overwrought. In my case, I think it was both. And his tactic proved
effective with me. I would not have read his words had I known, and once I
knew I felt obliged to finish. Kind of like going to a movie it's just too
impolite to leave even as one realizes one does not wish to see any more. Do
I wish to say this essay and others like it are unworthy? It's too late to
say. I have come too late or not at all to pass any judgements. You see it's
not my field. I'm a marginal element looking in. Perhaps I would not have
had it otherwise. But it goes beyond my situation, while allowing me as
marginal to perhaps comment more freely or at least to comment differently
from the dissonant unison I hear canibalistically celebrating on the
spiritual corpse of Heidegger, perhaps be it of philosophy itself. The pain
of this dissonance is implicated maybe more acutely for me in that I studied
with scholars at a time when one did not talk so freely about Heidegger in
the kind of terms that today are soooo endearing in academic circles. In the
very academic circles in which my teachers taught. So they are gone and now
we have a new generation. I situate myself on the margins of this new
generation. I refuse to partake of this philosphical corpus or corpse.
Shall I be nothing more then but a spectator or spectre? So be it.
So I have confessed. Perhaps I've been too candid for many. What have I
confessed? A certain astonishment in the face of the raging accusations
around the figure of Heidegger that stands like a Medusas' countenance one
dare no longer look at. Perhaps its this that keeps you silent on this list?
Am I awakening sleeping lions? I hope so! It is time to roar! To show some
rage! I do not wish to be a lonely voice in a wilderness. Better is the
cacophony of this dissonance than the silence of shock and dismay. Let us
gather around this countenance and ask what comes of this disfigurement of
Heidegger. I for one will seek another voice in this dissonance. Beyond this
pettiness I feel too close, too comfortable, too appropriate, and too
decent. Yes, too "politically correct", as that is what its called now. But
I will not judge. I will only raise my voice and question. Perhaps there are
some amomg you who will uncynically understand why I quote:
But where danger is, grows
The saving power also.
See ya
Bob W.
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
------------------