Oodles and oodles of life

Gordon Fitch gcf at panix.com
Sun Apr 7 14:35:03 PDT 2002


Chris Doss wrote:
> > Seriously, Heidegger's point is that since, according to the analysis
> > in Being and Time, human beings understand themselves and the
> > world in terms of the future, death is the ultimate determinate for human
> > self- and world-understanding. Turning away from death involves turning
> > away from the world and oneself.

John Mage:
> Perhps the very seed of Heidegger's Nazism.

It would be interesting to know where Heidegger Went Wrong, but this would be based on an assumption that at some point previous to that he was Going Right. However, if there is no way different philosophical works can be objectively judged as good or bad, it seems strongly implied that there is no way any particular philospher can be judged good or bad (_qua_ philosopher; a philosopher could certainly be a bad writer, for which we have a number of existence proofs.)

Hence it will be perhaps unserious of me to persecute the legacy of Heidegger as if it mattered and point out that _death_ (in the sense of the annihilation of oneself) cannot be any particular thing for humans (or any beings) in general, because it has no subjective aspect; that is, one can't experience it from the inside. The prospect of it is merely another category of phenomena, subject to the infinite vagaries of point of view, prejudice, and interpretation which taint all phenomena, all the moreso because there is nothing to grasp or refer to. Death, publicly speaking, is a perpetually unfilled blank, at once everything and nothing, everywhere and nowhere. One _can't_ turn away from it, any more than one can turn away from the pink unicorn.

I would rather have a more concrete explanation of the Naziism.

-- Gordon



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