I’ve been working to uncover the tragic insight into the human condition that Heidegger finds in Sophocles’ Antigone – in the tradition of Hölderlin’s translation and interpretation.  This is the arche tamechana, that against which nothing can avail. In Sophocles’ Antigone, the conflict between Creon and Antigone can be interpreted as a dramatic representation of … (Part 10) Heidegger’s Reading of Hölderlin’s Poem “The Ister”

*This post finishes up party 2 of Heidegger’s lecture course. The Parable of Vengeance   Mr. X and Mr. Y were parents of a boyfriend and girlfriend who were killed by a drunk driver.  Mr. X showed up every day for the trial, demanded justice in a victim impact statement, and felt he got it when … (Part 9) Heidegger’s Reading of Hölderlin’s Poem “The Ister”

Last time I did a standalone post on William Lane Craig and the Kalam Cosmological argument, but now back to Heidegger’s interpretation of Holderlin. Looking on to section 15, Heidegger draws a distinction between kalon and me kalon, “non beings / non beautiful.  We noted previously how the idea of the beautiful in Plato was … (Part 8) Heidegger’s Reading of Hölderlin’s Poem “The Ister”

My former professor and friend, the late Canadian postmodern philosopher David Goicoechea, gave this assessment of philosophy since Kierkegaard and Nietzsche in the Continental (as opposed to Analytic) tradition: Postmodernism and deconstruction are usually associated with a destruction of ethical values. The volumes in the Postmodern Ethics series demonstrate that such views are mistaken because … William Lane Craig and the Philosophy of the Kalam Cosmological Argument

One point that needs to be stressed is Heidegger’s thought of man as transitionally historical. For example, in this lecture course that was delivered at the height of the Nazi movement in 1942, Heidegger notes the central concepts of polis and apolis in the Antigone, and the central homelessness (apolis) caught between the will of … (Part 7) Heidegger’s Reading of Hölderlin’s Poem “The Ister”

Manifold is the uncanny, yet nothing more uncanny looms or stirs beyond the human being (Sophocles Antigone, Heidegger’s translation) I’m now into part 2/3 of Heidegger’s lecture course on Holderlin’s Hymn The Ister and we find out one of the reasons Holderlin is such an important poet for Heidegger is Holderlin’s interpretation/translation of Pindar and … (Part 6) Heidegger’s Reading of Hölderlin’s Poem “The Ister”

The modern scientific world picture is ever refining the mathematical technical projection of inanimate nature, order as calculable and ordered relationality posited in advance.  Heidegger comments Already in the last century, philosophy clearly recognized and spoke of the transformation of the concept of substance into the concept of function.  The actual is conceived as function … (Part 5) Heidegger’s Reading of Hölderlin’s Poem “The Ister”

We’ve been approaching Hölderlin’s talk of gods and their abandoning in an essential way, not merely relying on Hölderlin’s text nor secondary literature on Hölderlin. What is demanded, rather is orienteering through the depths of our own existence to let Hölderlin’s signposts point us to what is to be found there or what could be. … (Part 4) Heidegger’s Reading of Hölderlin’s Poem “The Ister”

Parmenides famously said, “apprehension and Being are the same,” and Heidegger quipped (I think in his Parmenides lecture course from the 40’s) such a thought makes you lose the desire to write books if you really understand it, which becomes obvious when it falls apart.  For example, we might apprehend movement fractionally, which starts out … (Part 3) Heidegger’s Reading of Hölderlin’s Poem “The Ister”

Hölderlin’s rivers are not symbolic images of a higher level or a deeper religious content.  They are not a placeholder for already familiar existing German essence and life.  Hölderlin’s hymnal poetry after 1799 was not concerned with symbolic images at all.  The end of The Ister says “Yet what that one does, that river, no … (Part 2) Heidegger’s Reading of Hölderlin’s Poem “The Ister”