Cologne, 08 February 1998
Henk van Tuijl schrieb:
> >Then the last god's granting is too close to be noticed.
>
> This is a new setting, even a new mode of being - if it is
> true "dass jede Frage hier endgueltig der Unmoeglichkeit
> einer Antwort gleichkommt" (each question equals here the
> impossibility of an answer; cf. Esposito, in: _Heidegger
> Studies XI_ 60).
> Esposito makes an interesting point when he adds that this
> "impossibility" itself is God.
Henk, I can't judge from the quote whether Esposito's remarks are tenable.
But you go on:
> Ergo, if God is Time, there
> is no Time for questioning and answering, for whispering
> and complaining. We step out of the context of an I-You
> relation, i.e. of the awareness of our metaphysical
> isolation.
I am troubled by this, since "God is Time" becomes a glib equation (at least,
as far as I can see at the moment).
When Hoelderlin says that the god is "nothing but time", it implies that the
relationship to the gods, mediated by the demigods, i.e. the poets, opens up
historical time for a people.
And Hoelderlin also says: "It is however not the time."
"Nicht ist es aber
Die Zeit. Noch sind sie
Unabgebunden. Goettliches trift untheilnehmende nicht."
"It is however not
The time. They are still
Unbound. Godliness does not touch nonparticipants."
We are still "nonparticipants", and therefore the talk of god as time has a
hollow ring to it (to my ear, at least). We are still unbound by an experience
of time which could be called godly, and therefore fall into merely logical
considerations.
Untouched, unbound, nonparticipating, we do not know whether there is "no Time
for questioning and answering". (In truth, there is only this time, since
Dasein is questioning.)
> We step out of the context of an I-You
> relation, i.e. of the awareness of our metaphysical
> isolation.
The I-You relation as a covenant with god has long since receded, thus we are
unbound. The awareness of our metaphysical isolation is quite a different
matter, however, since it is the metaphysical isolation _of Dasein_ itself. The
phrase "metaphysical isolation" comes from GA26, at a time when Heidegger still
does not draw a line between metaphysical and postmetaphysical, i.e. the
thinking of Dasein is still metaphysics, but no longer the traditional
metaphysics.
It has to be said that this metaphysical (or ontological) insight into Dasein
and its metaphysical isolation is today still far, far removed, still rare. So
an encounter of Dasein and Dasein _as such_ is today still rare, if not
impossible. It is still the time of circular time in which time devours its own
tail incessantly. Time remains encrypted, and we are not yet temporal; we do not
yet belong to time in its self-granting but delude ourselves that we use time to
our own ends. Time is still just another resource to be economized and
allocated.
"Die Zeit der Gipfel ist lang, weil auf den Gipfeln ein unausgesetztes Warten
und Harren _auf das Ereignis_ herrscht. ... Die Zeit der Gipfel ist _wesenhaft_
lang, denn die Vorbereitung des Wahren, das einstmals sich ereignen soll,
geschieht nicht ueber Nacht und auf Bestellung, sondern verbraucht viele
Menschenleben und selbst 'Generationen'." (GA39:56)
"The time of the summits is long because on the summits an incessant waiting and
biding _the propriating event_ prevails. ... The time of the summits is
_essentially_ long, for the preparation of the truth which is to one day
event-uate does not happen overnight or on demand, but consumes many human
lifetimes and even 'generations'."
> In a context of not yet and no longer, we probably
> experience what might (have) be(en).
> While hearing Kurtag and/or Cage there might remain
> a lingering "and yet ...".
> And isn't it our "choice" to enter into the essence of
> this "..." (nothingness?)?
Cage saw very clearly that the essence of music is the granting of silence, to
which we can listen. We can indeed choose to listen, but only because time _as
such_ is granted us. There _are_ only ways of beyng, modalities of beyng to
whose resonsnce we open ourselves up or close ourselves off. But it is not yet
time.
Truly,
Michael
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