Cologne, 25-Oct-1999
Subject:
_chora_ and _megethos_
Date:
Fri, 22 Oct 1999 16:00:45 +0100
From:
Stuart Elden <Stuart.Elden@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To:
heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To:
heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Stuart Elden wrote:
> Michael
>
> I'm working through section 15 of Plato's Sophist in detail, reading the
> German and English in parallel. It's a fascinating piece, pregnant with all
> sorts of ideas and insights, that point way beyond Being and Time. I'm
> interested in the the issue of _thetos_ and _athetos_, but particularly in
> the discussion of _megethos_, which Heidegger translates as _Erstreckung_.
> The English translation has 'extension', which i am not happy with, for, I
> guess, obvious reasons. It clearly pertains to continuum, to stretching
> between. I guess 'extension' is closer to _Verlaengerung_ or _Ausdehnung_.
> How do you see _Erstreckung_?
Stuart,
_Erstreckung_ in SuZ is Heidegger's term for Dasein's temporal stretch, its
standing-out into the dimensions of time, so with this in mind, "extension" is
woefully inadequate with all its Cartesian connotations and "occupiedness".
Why not simply "stretch" for "Erstreckung"? As in the "stretch" of the hand. The
Greek _megethos_ means simply "size" (or, more specifically, "height",
"length"). Everything perceivable (_aistheta_) hat a size, a stretch (taking up
space, room, _chora_), and this stretch is continuous, _syneches_, it "hangs
together", so that _as such_ it cannot be broken up into discrete bits.
The breaking up of sensuous beings into bits, their original "digitization",
makes them simpler, more _logos_-like, more logical and arithmetically
calculable, but at the price of a loss of position (_thetos_ becomes _athetos_).
Geometrical entities are not so convenient mathematically because position has
to be respected, and this is not so simple to deal with.
Is Descartes' extensio _athetos_? (Reduction to numerical co-ordinates, loss of
position, room?).
Best regards,
Michael
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