Dec 24, 2020Liked by Phocaean Dionysius, Montana Classical College
Excellent treatment of Heidegger's thinking. A lot to think about here.
"Heidegger’s radical historicism claims that there is no way to take one’s bearings or to judge a particular conception of nobility over and against another conception of nobility."
This is hard to doubt for the earlier Heidegger. The Dasein of Sein und Zeit is certainly far more "Cartesian" than Heidegger himself was comfortable with.
I wonder if this remains true for the Heidegger of the 30s & 40s. While it's trivial to say that Heidegger is hardly a fan of metaphysics in the original sense, at the same time one finds a powerful current of anti-subjectivism throughout his works.
The Heidegger who writes of Dasein as "living in the house of Being", who refers to "Being speaking through Dasein", seems to me much more open to at least some non-personal, non-subjective reference points -- even if Dasein's historical/historicist predicament means that one cannot fully express such reference points with the cold finality of logic.
"By contrast, as far as I can tell, the Christian response to Heidegger’s radical historicism is reaffirmation of faith in the radical importance of Jesus."
How familiar are you with Paul Tillich?
What you say here is more or less Tillich's conclusion in The Courage to Be, which applies a Heideggerian and existentialist approach to Christian (Protestant) theology.
Excellent treatment of Heidegger's thinking. A lot to think about here.
"Heidegger’s radical historicism claims that there is no way to take one’s bearings or to judge a particular conception of nobility over and against another conception of nobility."
This is hard to doubt for the earlier Heidegger. The Dasein of Sein und Zeit is certainly far more "Cartesian" than Heidegger himself was comfortable with.
I wonder if this remains true for the Heidegger of the 30s & 40s. While it's trivial to say that Heidegger is hardly a fan of metaphysics in the original sense, at the same time one finds a powerful current of anti-subjectivism throughout his works.
The Heidegger who writes of Dasein as "living in the house of Being", who refers to "Being speaking through Dasein", seems to me much more open to at least some non-personal, non-subjective reference points -- even if Dasein's historical/historicist predicament means that one cannot fully express such reference points with the cold finality of logic.
"By contrast, as far as I can tell, the Christian response to Heidegger’s radical historicism is reaffirmation of faith in the radical importance of Jesus."
How familiar are you with Paul Tillich?
What you say here is more or less Tillich's conclusion in The Courage to Be, which applies a Heideggerian and existentialist approach to Christian (Protestant) theology.
Loving your articles here.