Seriously, I have read all of these folks. They mostly speak gibberish in order to purff themselves up. It would be better if they remained silent. Better for the world and better for clear thought. And better for political activism. Practically everything that Heidegger said about science, physics, etc. is mainly anti-science.
One can take Heidegger seriously as an example of reaction against enlightenment values. As for me give me Voltaire or Hume anyday.
In the end the only unreadable philosopher worth reading is Kant. But I don't really feel like debating the declension of intellectual culture as represented by the anti-humanists and, as for Heidegger, a disgusting authoritarian.
Jerry
On 5/7/06, andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Actually Heidegger's post Being & Time writing is
> _really_ beautiful German. The translations do not do
> him justice, nowhere near.
>
> And is your contrast supposed to to whom and on what
> grounds? Quine, whose major thesis (the indeterminacy
> of translation) no two people can agree on what it
> means? Davidson, similarly opaque? Rawls, whose
> writing is a crime against the English language?
> Sellars? Give me a break.
>
> Foucault can write perfectly well -- his prose not
> fancy, but clear and serviceable. Zizek has a nice
> breezy accessible journalistic style. Merleau Ponty
> writes like an analytical philosopher, for good or ill
> (says one who was trained in that tradition).
>
> As you know, you can get a PhD in philosophy from a
> top school without ever looking at a word of
> Heidegger. I actually think he's a major philosopher
> though, one of the 20th century greats, well worth the
> effort of headbanging you have have top do to get your
> head around the main points.
>
> --- Jerry Monaco <monacojerry at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On 5/7/06, Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > Hell, without Heidegger there wouldn't even BE a
> > > Zizek. Or a Sartre, Foucault, Derrida,
> > Merleau-Ponty,
> > > Lacan, Arendt, Marcuse, Adorno and probably a
> > couple
> > > of dozen other thinkers I'm in too much of a hurry
> > to
> > > remember right now. What did Arendt call him --
> > the
> > > Hidden King?
> >
> >
> >
> > Does that mean all these people might actually have
> > to learn to write? I'll
> > admit an affection for Sartre in his popular mode
> > and Merleau-Ponty when
> > writing about the senses.... But the world would
> > have been better off
> > without Heidegger. At least trees and graduate
> > classes would have been
> > better off.
> >
> > --- ravi <gadfly at exitleft.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > > At around 7/5/06 8:46 am, Chris Doss wrote:
> > > > > Cuz he's the most influential philosopher
> > since
> > > > Hegel?
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > You mean not Zizek?!! ;-)
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > Nu, zayats, pogodi!
> > >
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> > >
> >
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog
> > is
> > Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and
> > Culture
> > http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
> >
> > His fiction, poetry, weblog is
> > Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories
> > http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/
> >
> > Notes, Quotes, Images - From some of my reading and
> > browsing
> > http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/
> > > ___________________________________
> >
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
>
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-- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/
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