[lit-ideas] Re: Daughter of a Female Dog
- From: "Walter C. Okshevsky" <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2009 15:29:15 -0230
Looks like I should have been more specific. When I say "about him" I mean his
philosophical writings/accounts/arguments, not his personal life and its
biographies. I believe that philosophy is a discipline in (of the) pursuit of
transcendental truth - be such truth of any "service" to anyone or be it of any
relevance to one's own or others' personal lives. If we don't psychologize the
arguments of scientists, why do it to philosophers?
I must confess that the empirical grounds of my claim below regarding quantities
of crap rest on crudely anecdotal data.
Walter O
MUN
Quoting Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxx>:
> Walter O. wrote of Kant:
>
> "... no other philosopher has had more crap written about him than he."
>
> Herr Trogge nominates four others:
>
> 1. Plato
> 2. Descartes
> 3. Heidegger
> 4. Wittgenstein
>
>
> If we move beyond quantity to the nature of the crap, surely Nietzsche is an
> obvious nominee.
>
> Which reminds me of my graduate days and a lively discussion in a pub. It
> was a course on Heidegger and the class had moved from classroom to an
> environment more conducive to philosophical reflection. The discussion
> revolved around the question of whether Heidegger's involvement with
> National Socialism should influence the interpretation of his works. As I
> remember it, we students were divided and our professor firmly on the side
> of Heidegger's politics being irrelevant for understanding his philosophy.
> I, too, thought that Heidegger's politics were not relevant, but uneasy with
> the thought of dismissing it. Towards the end of the last century, there
> was quite a thriving cottage industry devoted to the question of Heidegger
> and Nazism.
>
> Here I am taking Walter literally when he speaks of crap written about a
> philosopher. Is there a philosopher who has had more written _about him_,
> than Heidegger?
>
> I suppose the larger question would be whether this is of any philosophical
> interest. And I think I haven't changed my mind on this matter since my
> graduate days. I still feel biography should not guide philosophical
> thought, but I am, perhaps, more uncomfortable with dismissing biographical
> details.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Phil Enns
> Yogyakarta, Indonesia
>
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