Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
- Hereandnow
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
Yes, I remember Roquentin's awareness of existence, and I have had my own experiences of similar kind, but now as we are asking why there is something rather than nothing, also the internal logic of existence must be taken into account. Or do you think that those experiences contradict the phenomenological analysis of our existence? Isn't it rather that they must be included in the analysis? We cannot, as philosophers, stay on the irrational level. Meanings, values, purposes, existential experiences, all these are "facts" and evidence for searching the meaning of our existence, which in my opinion is the task of philosophy. Heidegger wrote that 'philosophy of life' is the same kind of a concept as 'botany of plants'.Hereandnow wrote: ↑August 27th, 2018, 1:52 pm And if, Tamminem, we lived in an abstract world of logic, those tautologies would exhaust Being's meaning. But as I have said on many occasions, the Real far exceeds the logic. The world as presence is more than can be contained in reason, as if a concept like 'presence' has anything at all to do with. say, the warmth of sunshine on my face. They are completely unalike. Qualitatively different, notwithstanding Heidegger, Husserl and others. See Roquentin in Sartre's Nausea and the chestnut tree incident. Now THAT is Being.
And Roquentin's nausea is presence in the deepest sense.
- Hereandnow
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
"internal logic of our existence" is a curious locution. I don't know how to take it though. I am a self, logical always already logical, in every perception. But when I have one of those extraordinary encounters with Being, what Jaspers calls the "sense of Being", (which can be further realized by extending oneself intuitively. Jaspers is right about this) I know that, notwithstanding the presence of logic that makes the awareness possible, I am not confined by logic in my experience. There is a certain "innocence" of the eye that cannot be challenged by analysis. Here, we are on the threshold of mysticism, though Jaspers doesn't like to use this term because he believes he is simply talking about the same world and has not slipped off into some other. Kierkegaard calls this threshold where the rational mind yields to the irrational present, or the eternal present (see his Concept of Anxiety and his Philosophical Fragments). I very much much appreciate Kirkegaard on this, even if he has one foot stuck so deeply in Christian metaphysics. Heidegger gets his analysis of past and future from him. What Heidegger calls dasein, at least the temporal dynamic of it, I am sure he lifted from Kierkegaard. But Kierkegaard believed that if reason in its past to future construction of experience were to be suspended, the eternal present would reveal, well, god, the soul, our authentic self.Tamminen
Yes, I remember Roquentin's awareness of existence, and I have had my own experiences of similar kind, but now as we are asking why there is something rather than nothing, also the internal logic of existence must be taken into account. Or do you think that those experiences contradict the phenomenological analysis of our existence? Isn't it rather that they must be included in the analysis? We cannot, as philosophers, stay on the irrational level. Meanings, values, purposes, existential experiences, all these are "facts" and evidence for searching the meaning of our existence, which in my opinion is the task of philosophy. Heidegger wrote that 'philosophy of life' is the same kind of a concept as 'botany of plants'.
And Roquentin's nausea is presence in the deepest sense.
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- Sy Borg
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
To be fair, theoretically a totality may be different to its constituents, focused inwards, since there's no other direction. However, it may also be chaotic and unfocused.ThomasHobbes wrote: ↑August 27th, 2018, 5:52 pmNice.
It's like defining the definition of defining.
This claim means that all other species, reveal their inner god - their authentic selves. Consider a centipede's or bobbit worm's inner god, their authentic selves - they are nasty buggers.Hereandnow wrote:But Kierkegaard believed that if reason in its past to future construction of experience were to be suspended, the eternal present would reveal, well, god, the soul, our authentic self.
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
One could say that nature requires entities that inflict much entropy on others while creating little order themselves so as to prevent stagnation, to make the "building blocks" of nature more broadly available but that does not mean there is anything remotely pleasant about such creatures.
Who knows? Maybe the sadistic and self indulgent lunacy of Hitler, Mao, Stalin and other unhinged dictators will in some way play a role in saving the human race, perhaps a hard and vital lesson learned? Nonetheless, they were still dreadful people when considered in the usual terms of reason, respect, kindness and mercy.
I suppose I believe in trying to do the right thing to some extent even if it seems futile in the greater scheme of things.
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
As to the greater scheme, that is a can of "worms" that requires more than centipede talk.
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
It's easy enough to argue that on an objective level the human race has been pretty much the worst thing that happened to planet earth.
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
Yes, we are nasty too. All animals are nasty, but some animals are more nasty than others.Hereandnow wrote: ↑August 28th, 2018, 2:01 pm Nasty little blighters is only relative to the ones they're nasty to. I guess on a typical day I step on scores of little creatures in the back yard and at their town hall meetings they talk about me in the most unsavory terms.
As to the greater scheme, that is a can of "worms" that requires more than centipede talk.
At this stage the algal blooms of the Great Oxygenation Event are still a long way ahead of humans in terms of killing and extinctions, but the Anthropocene may only be in in early stages.ThomasHobbes wrote: ↑August 28th, 2018, 3:14 pmWe might like to call critters evil but....
It's easy enough to argue that on an objective level the human race has been pretty much the worst thing that happened to planet earth.
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
O2 might have killed gazzzilllions of tiny creatures, but this lead to massive diversity, and more complexity in evolution - a diversity which we are wilfully destroying.
It's hard to blame algae since they were unwilling.
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
The effect is the same, though.ThomasHobbes wrote: ↑August 28th, 2018, 6:04 pmO2 might have killed gazzzilllions of tiny creatures, but this lead to massive diversity, and more complexity in evolution - a diversity which we are wilfully destroying.
It's hard to blame algae since they were unwilling.
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
How?Greta wrote: ↑August 28th, 2018, 7:36 pmThe effect is the same, though.ThomasHobbes wrote: ↑August 28th, 2018, 6:04 pm
O2 might have killed gazzzilllions of tiny creatures, but this lead to massive diversity, and more complexity in evolution - a diversity which we are wilfully destroying.
It's hard to blame algae since they were unwilling.
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
1. I feel that the two questions are not the same, but that they are tangential. The question referring to "what is the meaning of existence" i feel is 'why' question. As in it is a question of why we exist. Whereas my initial question "why is there anything at all and rather not nothing" is a question of how we exist. I am personally biased to this interpretation because I am partial von Herrmann who repeatedly stated in his lectures that being is nicht ein was aber ein wie which means "being is not a what, being is a how."Fooloso4 wrote: ↑August 23rd, 2018, 7:28 pm JohnB53,
I would like to know what your thoughts are on any or all of the following, since they are related. And, of course, what others have to say would also be welcome.
1.Do you take the question of why is there anything at all and rather not nothing to be the same as the question of the meaning of being?
2. Do you think Heidegger answers this or these questions?
3. Does what in his later works he refers to as ‘es gibt’, the giving of being, give the answer to these questions or are they wrested from being by man or do they remain unanswered, a matter of being guided by the questions rather than answers?
4. Would history be different without say Aristotle or Heidegger himself or would someone else have “harkened” to being, this is, if I remember correctly, think what is given by being to be thought?
5. Is this a matter of thinking about the issues that confront us, for example, Heidegger’s concern with technology, or something more?
6. What does this mean for the relationship between man and history? He talks, for example, in Time and Being, about the future determining the present.
7. What is the relationship between philosophy and history?
2. I feel Heidegger speaks to the difference between the two questions. He does not ask what is being but rather he asks how is it to be. He seeks to answer his question by answering it within a Historical context (e.g How is it to be [within the relevant Historical epoch with its own traditions])
- Hereandnow
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Re: Why is there anything at all and rather not nothing
And what would be the basis for a distinction if 'to be' is analytically reduced how it is to be? As if there is an alternative to the "how" of it? If not then Heidegger plain and simple is defining Being: it is, like all concepts, a provisional one, waiting for some future amendment that furthers disclosure.JohnB53
He does not ask what is being but rather he asks how is it to be
Do you think 'Being' is a term that designates some intuition, like Kant and space? My reading of Heidegger would put this kind of thing entirely out of interpretive power of the language used to that takes up the world As language and its signs. This is his critique of Kant on space: space is, here, over there, under the couch, just around the bend, and so on. It is these "regional" clusters of meaning that are made "proximal" on certain occasions, and beyond this, and of course its elaborations in B&T, there is no space, just the endless interpretative contexts, evolving in greater disclosure of the world.
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