“Aristotle, Plato’s disciple, relates at one place (Nicomachean Ethics, Z 7, 1141b 77ff ) the basic conception determining the Greek view on the essence of the thinker: ‘It is said they (the thinkers) indeed know things that are excessive, and thus astounding, and thereby difficult, and hence in general ‘demonic (daimonia)’ but also useless, for they are not seeking what is, according to the straightforward popular opinion, good for man.’ … The Greeks, to whom we owe the essence and name of ‘philosophy’ and of the ‘philosopher,’ already knew quite well that thinkers are not ‘close to life.’ But only the Greeks concluded
from this lack of closeness to life that the thinkers are then the most necessary – precisely in view of the essential misery of man (Martin Heidegger, Parmenides Seminar, 100).“

“Radiant the gods’ mild breezes / Gently play on you / As the girl artist’s fingers / On holy strings. – Fateless the Heavenly breathe / Like an unweaned infant asleep; / Chastely preserved / In modest bud / For even their minds / Are in flower/And their blissful eyes / Eternally tranquil gazey / Etemally clear. – But we are fated / to find no foothold, no rest, / And suffering mortals / Dwindle and fall/ Headlong from one/ Hour to the next Hurled like water / From ledge to ledge / Downward for years to the vague abyss (Holderlin’s “Hyperion’s Song of Fate” quoted in Martin Heidegger and Eugen Fink, Heraclitus Seminar, 101)” … [Heidegger and Fink commenting on the passage say] “the gods wander without destiny, their spirit eternally in bloom, while humans lead a restless life and fall into the cataract of time and disappear.” (Martin Heidegger and Eugen Fink, Heraclitus Seminar, 101)

For my previous recent E-Project I blogged through the new anthology of essays “The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus (2024).” In that project one thing I argued was for the influence of ancient pagan thought on the New Testament, for example in my Robyn Walsh posts.

1. Robyn Faith Walsh and Christianity as Ancient Literary Practice
2. Robyn Faith Walsh and Christianity with Moral Influence
3. Robyn Faith Walsh and Paul

Now for this new blogging E-project I am going to look at Martin Heidegger’s reading of ancient Greek thought in 3 of his lecture courses on the ancients. Heidegger is widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential Continental (as opposed to Analytic) philosophers of the 20st century. This is a particular area of interest for me as I wrote my MA thesis on Heidegger and the Greeks back in 2002:

Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy (Studies in Continental Thought)

The Beginning of Western Philosophy: Interpretation of Anaximander and Parmenides (Studies in Continental Thought)

Heraclitus: The Inception of Occidental Thinking and Logic: Heraclitus’s Doctrine of the Logos (Athlone Contemporary European Thinkers)

• I will be supplementing these readings with two of Heidegger’s other lecture courses (on Heraclitus and Parmenides), as well as Heidegger’s thoughts on Hölderlin and the Greeks, particularly in:

Heraclitus Seminar (Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy)

Parmenides (Studies in Continental Thought)

Elucidations of Holderlin’s Poetry (Contemporary Studies in Philosophy and the Human Sciences)

Hölderlin’s Hymns “Germania” and “The Rhine” (Studies in Continental Thought)

Hölderlin’s hymn “The Ister” (Studies in Continental Thought)

Hölderlin’s Hymn “Remembrance” (Studies in Continental Thought)

If you’d like background examples of the continental phenomenological method (un-covering the hidden) which I will be using in this blogging E-Project, please see these posts below:

Heidegger’s Hegelian Phenomenological Method (Part 1/2)

Heidegger’s Hegelian Phenomenological Method (Part 2/2)

Dr. Carlo Alvaro and Dr. Richard Carrier Debate the Kalam Cosmological Argument

The Joy of Philosophy (4/4)

On the Essence of Hiding; or, Philosophical Truth

Philosophy and the Will

The Joy of Philosophy (Postscript and Poetry)

Ancient Greek has a different alphabet than we do but no understanding of Greek is needed to follow along because if I use a Greek word, I switch it into our alphabet (transliterate) and always explain what it means. Let’s Re-think the Greeks!