Just taking a quick break from programming. Over at The 4th Century they quote a great quote from one of my favorite Heidegger texts, The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic. I think I love that particular text because it covers much the same ground as Being and Time, was written at around the same time, but approaches it through a deconstruction of Leibniz. Further this quote really explains why one ought to conduct philosophy through a deconstruction of great philosphers.
The finitude of philosophy consists not in the fact that it comes against limits and cannot proceed further. It rather consists in this: in the singleness and simplicity of its central problematic, philosophy conceals a richness that again and again demands a renewed awakening.
The idea is that philosophy ought be conducted by constantly taking up the questions of philosophy. Thus despite the common distortion, philosophers like Descartes aren't doing poor philosophy as viewed by people like Heidegger (or Derrida). Rather what is problematic is to simply treat their philosophy as a set of dogmas. Philosophy as said. Philosophy to be philosophy must always be a saying. It must always be underway and never be finished. Thus to read Descartes properly one must not read him as finished. One must take up his questioning and follow through, not limiting oneself to what he said. This is what Heidegger means by a richness that demands a renewed awakening.
The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic, as well as many of Heidegger's other works, is exactly this. In it he takes up the questioning of Leibniz' philosophy. He carefully reads Leibniz, but not just in terms of what Leibniz said, but in terms of the questioning Leibniz brought to hand. It is a very intriguing text and very useful as I think it highlights certain things somewhat better than Being and Time does.
Anyway this might also be helpful for understanding Deconstruction as well. Derrida gets a bum-rap sometimes for misreading various philosophers. However I typically (although not always) feel he reads very, very carefully. He just doesn't read them in terms of what is said, but in a return to the act of saying and understanding. To me, that is the heart of Deconstruction, although perhaps others might disagree.
I must quickly point out though that Heidegger's Destruction and Derrida's Deconstruction don't necessarily parallel each other exactly. However if we take seriously both Heidegger and Derrida, we ought not expect them to anymore than we ought expect Heidegger's and Leibniz' readings to line up.
I am only just beginning my adventure with Heidegger (finished Being and Time, and when the semester is over I plan to tackle some of the so-called "later" Heidegger), but I think what I find more appealing than anything else is his insistence on a continual return to the tradition of metaphysics and the great philosophers. It's almost like he liberates the tradition for renewed appreciation and joy.
Enowing has a relevant quotation today as well. "Destruction means--to open our ears, to make ourselves free for what speaks to us in tradition and the Being of being."
I should add that Enowning has been quoting paragraphs from What is Philosophy, most of which are quite interesting. Even if you don't have much of a desire to read Heidegger, you might find some of the quotations both informative and interesting.
An other good quote related to all of this:
"[T]he ultimate business of philosophy is to preserve the force of the elemental words in which Dasein expresses itself, and to keep the common understanding from levelling them off to that unintelligibility which functions in turn as a source of psuedo-problems." (B&T 262)
I think this means something very similar to what Derrida in particular does.
Clark,
It's enowning, not enowing.
Dasein appropriates and makes its own. Dasein don't owe nothing to nobody! :-)
Great site you got here.
Cheers,
Pete
Sorry. I'd written that late at night after a very long and stressful day of programming.
I've closed comments in order to avoid spam since I don't check this older blog as much anymore.
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