The Secular Frontier

There are 2 famous stories about Heraclitus The first famous story about Heraclitus involves him at a stove or oven, where he is said to have been warming himself. According to Diogenes Laërtius in his "Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers," some visitors came upon Heraclitus while he was at the stove: "They say that some strangers came to visit him and, finding him warming himself by the stove, stood hesitating whether to approach him. Seeing this, Heraclitus invited them to come in, saying, 'Even here the gods are present.'" This is quite the contrast with Thales we looked at previously who was oblivious to the present and fell into a well while thinking.  Heraclitus is at home with the simplicity of the hearth.   Heidegger is able to connect Heraclitus' fire with the lustrous radiance ofthe gold of Pindar, "[t]he hearth is the site of being-homely ... Latin vesta is the Roman name for the goddess of the hearth fire ... para: alongside - beside, or more precisely, in the sphere of the ... Read Article

“We call those thinkers who think in the region of the inception ‘the inceptional [arche, 18] thinkers.’  There are only three such thinkers: Anaximander, Parmenides, and Heraclitus (Heidegger, Heraclitus, 4).” Heidegger considers Anaximander, Parmenides, and Heraclitus as the thinkers at the inception of Western Philosophy. I have previously posted about Anaximander and Parmenides. I will now look at Heidegger's 1943/44 lecture course on Heraclitus. As a beginning: We have stories that the people come to see Heraclitus to see something extraordinary, him thinking in profundity, so that they can engage in entertaining chatter about him, but instead find him warming himself at the stove saying "here too the gods are present."  They don’t want Heraclitus’s insights, but just to say they were in the presence of a thinker celebrity.  The gods presence or appear at the stove, and only here, in the inconspicuousness of the everyday.  Another story is Heraclitus at the temple of Artemi ... Read Article

Why are you so petrified of silence? Here can you handle this?  Did you think about your bills, you ex, your deadlines?  Or when you think you're going to die? Or did you long for the next distraction? All I Really Want (by Alanis Morissette) This is in fact the case: for the polis, still thought in a Greek way, is the pole and the site around which all appearing of essential beings, and with it also the dreadful non-essence of all beings, turns (Heidegger, Heraclitus Lecture Course, 1943-44, pg 11) I spoke previously about the polis and the fleeting nature of what is prized in it, the current, so I’ll leave the above two quotes as they stand. In ancient Greek poetry, the concept of the afterlife was often depicted through the idea of the underworld, or Hades. The shades, or psūkhaí (ψυχαί), which were the spirits or souls of the deceased, indeed wandered in this realm. When Odysseus visits the underworld in Book 11, he encounters numerous shades of the dead. Th ... Read Article

Parmenides said “for the same is apprehending as well as Being.”  Apprehending is a translation of the Greek word noein, to “take” into sight (to look it over or “take” it into consideration).  We operate in this while not normally seeing it as conspicuous, but as I said this is outlined when it breaks down.  For example, when I try to “take” movement “as” fractional, it breaks down.  In order to travel a distance, I must first make it halfway.  But, to make it to that middle I must first make it halfway to that middle, and so on to infinity.  This paradox where the sameness of apprehending and Being breaks down shows us the normal state of human comportment is apprehending and Being are the same.  I talked previously how our basic stance toward the world is “taking-as.”  We don’t see this directly, but it is made conspicuous when the process breaks down.  Heidegger gives the example in at least 2 lecture courses including this one of ... Read Article

This is my second of two background pieces on Being that will prepare us to follow Heidegger along Parmenides's path. An understanding of Being is necessary for us to “encounter” beings “as such,” for them to make us happy, weigh on us in a troubled manner, sustain us, be interrogated by us or occupy us in any way:  We could not wish a being to not be for how could we do this without an understanding of being and not being?  An understanding of Being is needed for questioning, interrogating beings in terms of if they are and what they are.  Experiencing Nothingness (not-Being), too, requires an understanding of Being.  Being is traditionally divided into essence “whatness” and existence “howness,” and so we might say a table is brown in terms of what it is, and badly positioned and exists in terms of how or the "manner" in which it is.  Existence means present at hand, and so if we are questioning as to whether the table exists or not we appeal to it at hand.&nb ... Read Article

I’ve moved beyond Heidegger’s analysis of Anaximander in the lecture course to Parmenides.  Parmenides, of course, is the great philosopher of Being, so let’s gather some preliminary thoughts about Being. When we normally talk about Being, we mean a few different things.  The first is whatness: the dog understood in terms of its furriness for example.  Moreover, we mean howness, such as the table is badly placed in the middle of the gym floor during the game.  In both cases "taken/understood" as furry and as badly positioned, logos apophantikos is intended – something as something, which is to say something as something else.  This can either be something secondary like position and texture, or essential like materiality and in-itself-ness of the piece of chalk.  However, something prior is required.  In a few lecture courses Heidegger gives the example of what makes the understanding of the Being of beings possible even when it isn’t in subject predicate form.  For instance, if ... Read Article

I noted previously Anaximander is talking about beings, ta onta, the neuter plural of to on – being, which implies beings in their unity and not just a multiplicity.  Heidegger notes we see this too in Sanskrit. In Sanskrit, the use of the neuter plural form for "beings" or similar concepts can indeed convey a sense of unity rather than just multiplicity. The neuter gender in Sanskrit often signifies concepts or things in their abstract or collective forms rather than as individual entities. This gender can transcend the binary of masculine and feminine, suggesting something universal or essential. Generally, the plural form would imply many distinct entities, but in philosophical or spiritual contexts, the neuter plural can denote a holistic view where individual distinctions dissolve into a greater, unified whole. This reflects a key aspect of Indian philosophy, particularly in Vedanta or the Upanishads, where the multiplicity of the world is seen as an expression of one underlying reality. Bh ... Read Article

Anaximander gave us a word about beings as beings (entities, things that are in some way instead of being nothing) not just about beings of a specific domain like physical beings or anthropological entities, beings in their Being, and one of the elements was transition like day to night.  In the political dimension, this made sense because Anaximander’s Greece was in a transition period where there were embryos hinting at transition away from the rule of tyrants and toward the voice of the people.  This would have been conspicuous at the time in the contrast between some cities and the reforms happening in Athens.  The transition brings the two opposites into outline or conspicuousness – a limit or peras.  In Greek transition has to do with methistanai, which includes such things as:  To move or transfer from one place to another; To remove, displace, or change the position of something or someone; To change or alter, especially in the context of changing one's mind or allegiance.  For example, in ... Read Article

“The fragment of Anaximander presents one of the strongest hermeneutic challenges known to modem philology and philosophy.”  (Prof Vassilis Lambropoulos: Stumbling.over the ‘Boundary Stone of Greek Philosophy’ Two Centuries-of Translating the Anaximander Fragment) So, I've been blogging about Heidegger's interpretation of Anaximander, primarily from part 1 of the summer semester 1932 lecture course from the University of Freiburg. Next time I will begin to study the part of that course on Parmenides. Let's finish up with Anaximander. For a being to step forth it must create a harmony of beings in non-compliance.  For example, a person might go from a life that is out of joint because of loneliness to the being joined of beings or jointure of a new love who stands forth or is contured/outlined/highlighted that saturates the person’s whole world.  For Anaximander time measures out to beings their Being, and so love is always in the danger of receding back into the background ... Read Article

"The fragment of Anaximander presents one of the strongest hermeneutic challenges known to modem philology and philosophy."  (Prof Vassilis Lambropoulos: Stumbling.over the 'Boundary Stone of Greek Philosophy' Two Centuries-of Translating the Anaximander Fragment) In The Anaximander Fragment in Nietzsche's translation (Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks) is quoted: Whence things have their origin, there they must also pass away according to necessity; for they must pay penalty and be judged for their injustice, according to the ordinance of time. Then Hermann Diel's (Fragments of the Presocratics), But where things have their origin, there too their passing away occurs according to necessity; for they pay recompense and penalty to one another for their recklessness, according to firmly established time. In the essay in Off The Beaten Track, Heidegger narrows his study to only a part of the fragment he considers authentically Anaximander ...along the lines of usage; ... Read Article

“The fragment of Anaximander presents one of the strongest hermeneutic challenges known to modem philology and philosophy.”  (Prof Vassilis Lambropoulos: Stumbling.Over the ‘Boundary Stone of Greek Philosophy’ Two Centuries-of Translating the Anaximander Fragment) “For things pay one another penalty and retribution for their wickedness.” (Anaximander) or “they (beings) bestow compliance and correspondence on one another in consideration of the non-compliance." (Anaximander) Martin Heidegger and Medard Boss: "Our patients force us to see the human being in his essential ground because the modem 'neuroses of boredom and meaninglessness' can no longer be drowned out by glossing over or covering up particular symptoms of illness. If one treats those symptoms only, then another symptom will emerge again and again ... They no longer see meaning in their life and ... they have become intolerably bored (Heidegger and Boss, Zollikon Seminar, 160-161)" We have lost our connection to ... Read Article

“The fragment of Anaximander presents one of the strongest hermeneutic challenges known to modem philology and philosophy.”  (Prof Vassilis Lambropoulos: Stumbling.Over the ‘Boundary Stone of Greek Philosophy’ Two Centuries-of Translating the Anaximander Fragment) We’ve been thinking about “beings” for Anaximander, which we have argued does not mean beings as a whole collection but beings in their unity of presencing or appearing.  For example, Heidegger points out mystic Meister Eckhart says love changes man into the things he loves (Heidegger, 2013, 175-6).  So, for example in “eros love” we read in Dickens’ David Copperfield: “I was sensible of a mist of love and beauty about Dora, but of nothing else … it was all Dora to me. The sun shone Dora, and the birds sang Dora. The south wind blew Dora, and the wildflowers in the hedges were all Doras, to a bud  (Dickens, 2004, ch 33 Blissful).”  Similarly, for the “agape love” Eckhart wo ... Read Article

“The fragment of Anaximander presents one of the strongest hermeneutic challenges known to modem philology and philosophy.”  (Prof Vassilis Lambropoulos: Stumbling.Over the ‘Boundary Stone of Greek Philosophy’ Two Centuries-of Translating the Anaximander Fragment) Heidegger’s reading of the Pre-Socratics: Anaximander Part 1. Summary and Analysis. In this lecture course, Heidegger is looking at rethinking Anaximander and Parmenides.  The Anaximander fragment is usually interpreted to mean things come to be and pass away using legal language, and so Nietzsche translates: “Whence things have their origination, thence must they also perish, according to necessity; for they must pay retribution and be judged for their injustices, according to the order of time.”  To begin to unpack this we need to think the law imagery in a Greek way.  Walker comments: “the Greeks loved their laws, the children of their ideals, above all else. Plato and Aristotle reiterate Herodotus when ... Read Article

After talking to a few people I decided to summarize the previous The Late Date of the Gospels blog post series regarding 2 issues: (i) A Second Century date for Mark and (ii) The theory Luke comes after Matthew. MARK I argued that the traditional dating of Mark around 70 CE is unsupported because it is mostly based on the prediction of the destruction of the temple but if you accept it all that is really established is the document is post 70 CE, not how near or far it is from it. I supplemented this with the idea that the storyline from the conversion of the soldier at the cross to the burial by Joseph of Arimathea is alluding to Jesus as the new and greater reformer than Cleomenes III in Plutarch's Parallel Lives which would put Mark sometime after the turn of the century. The gospels also seem to be patterned after the form of Plutarch's biographies. Some scholars like Hermann Detering date Mark into the second century. For example, Detering's Thesis: In his scholarly work, Detering has con ... Read Article

This volume comprises a lecture course given by Martin Heidegger at the University of Freiburg in 1932.  It’s topic is the beginning of Western philosophy and deals with Being and beings.  What is Being?  The quote from Plato's Sophist that appears at the beginning of Heidegger's "Being and Time" is: "For you have evidently long been aware of this (what you properly mean when you use the expression 'being'); but we who once believed we understood it have now become perplexed" (Sophist 244a).  So, Being was questionable in Plato’s time, and still in our time. What did Homer say about Being and beings?  Under Homer’s understanding with beings as eonta, Homer applies the term eonta to “the Achaean’s encampment before Troy, the god’s wrath, the plague’s fury, funeral pyres, [and] the perplexity of the leaders’. Man too belongs to eonta.”  Something did not need to be an object to be a being, since a dream “is” just as much as a rock, is something rather ... Read Article