Cologne 07-Mar-2002
Stuart Elden schrieb Sat, 2 Mar 2002 10:21:30 -0000:
> Michael, Anthony
>
> I've been enjoying your dialogue about Aristotle and Descartes. Whilst I
> agree with Michael, I think one of the key questions is about how this shift
> came about. I think if Aristotle and Descartes are contrasted - just as if
> Euclid and Descartes are contrasted on geometry - there is a fundamental
> difference. But Helen Lang's work on the reception of Aristotle through
> scholasticism seems to be very useful in looking at this -
>
> Helen Lang, Aristotle's Physics and its Medieval Varieties
> Helen Lang, The Order of Nature in Aristotle's Physics
>
> I also found these useful
>
> David Rapport Lachterman, The Ethics of Geometry
> Jacob Klein, Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra
>
> Of Heidegger's texts, Michael has mentioned several of the most important.
> I'd only add the lecture course on Plato's Sophist, which has a discussion
> of some of these issues in Aristotle, particularly section 15. I wrote a
> piece on that which might be of interest. "The Place of Geometry: Heidegger's
> Mathematical Excursus on Aristotle", The Heythrop Journal, Vol 42 No 3,
> July 2001, pp. 311-28. I think some of claims in there are probably a bit
> overblown, but it's precisely the shift between the two that now most
> interested in pursuing, if I get some time. More recently I've been working
> on the nature of calculation in the Beitraege, with its political
> implications.
>
Thanks for that, Stuart.
You got me buying Klein's book already when I was working on the mathematical
excursus in the Sophistaes lectures. Heidegger studied several semesters of
mathematics in the time when Rickert was his mentor.
For Marx, in bourgeois society, society's own social activity confronts it as "a
reified power over us that grows out of our control, crosses our expectations,
nullifies our calculations" (MEW3:33).
According to late Heidegger, "our entire existence is challenged everywhere
[...] to switch over to planning and calculating everything"1). Even being
itself is subject "to the challenge to allow beings to appear within the horizon
of calculability"2).
1) M. Heidegger 'Der Satz der Identitaet' (Principle of Identity) in: Identitaet
und Differenz, Neske Verlag, Pfullingen 1957 p.27.
2) ibid.
"The fundamental trait of the cybernetic casting of the world is the regulating
circuit through which the feedback of information runs. The most encompassing
regulating circuit encompasses the reciprocal relation between humans and world.
What holds sway in this encompassing? The world relations of humans and with
them the entire social existence of humans are enclosed in the area of
domination of cybernetic science"3).
Here, as everywhere else, Heidegger totalizes calculatingness without taking the
economy into account.
3) ?The Origin of Art and the Assignment of Thinking? (1967) In: Denkerfahrungen
(Experiences in Thinking) Hermann Heidegger (ed.) Klostermann, Frankfurt/M. 1983
p.145
A whiff of economy intrudes every now and then into Heidegger's thoughts, but is
not followed up. For instance:
"...the law of conservation of force (Kraft) which in turn is now defined with
regard to _consumption_ and _expenditure_, to _work_ -- headings for new basic
notions which now penetrate into the contemplation of nature and which betray a
striking resonance with the economic dimension, with 'calculating' with
success." (_Die Frage nach dem Ding_ S.73)
What is the nature of economic calculation?
What is the nature of technical/scientific calculation?
Michael
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