[lit-ideas] Re Heidegger for Lawrence
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 23:56:54 -0800
The terms "humanism" and "anti-humanism" are broad and capable of several
definitions and I hesitated before responding to Phil's note. In my case,
and I assume Tim Blacks and Stephen Hicks as well (but I'm not sure), I am
referring to the "loss of the subject." Luc Ferry and Renaut in their
French Philosophy of the Sixties, An Essay on Antihumanism, do not single
Heidegger out, but they include him as one of the anti-humanists, saying for
Heidegger (and Derrida) there are no facts, only interpretations. We are
not to use our minds to reason - we are not to seek to be rational. We are
to seek authenticity.
When you group Heidegger's degrading of reason with Freud's degrading of the
will (for it is not we who decide but our sub-consciousness), and Marx (who
has taken history out of our hands) there is precious little left for "the
subject."
After reading about Heidegger for a month I can see that he cuts across some
of these issues. He would not agree that humans can ever be "objects," but
at the same time he has taken away some of their ability to be "subjects" -
or so it seems.
Lawrence
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Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Re Heidegger for Lawrence
UHM? Herr Heidegger is a pure humanist, otherwise how do you square his
views on animals (they are not or have not or partake not of Dasein,
etc..)
On Thu, 3 Dec 2009, Phil Enns wrote:
> It is not clear whether Lawrence Helm is quoting or offering his own
> opinion, but he writes:
>
> "Less 'troubling' but more serious is Heidegger?s 'anti-humanism'.?
>
>
> Personally, it is precisely Heidegger's 'anti-humanism' that makes his
> thought such a welcome relief to so much of modern philosophy. The
> modern preoccupation with experience and consciousness became a
> narcissistic humanism (a tautology?) that reduced the world to human
> thoughts and words. Heidegger pushed back. Furthermore, it is this
> anti-humanism that I see as complicating the simple brush stroke that
> paints the whole of Heidegger's thought as Nazi propaganda.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Phil Enns
> Yogyakarta, Indonesia
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