HEIDEGGER: THE CRITIQUE OF LOGIC

Transkript

1 HEIDEGGER: THE CRITIQUE OF LOGIC

2 HEIDEGGER: THE CRITIQUE OF LOGIC by THOMAS A. FAY MARTINUS NIJHOFF / THE HAGUE / 1977

3 1977 by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form ISBN-13: e-isbn-13: DOl: /

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface List of Abbreviations VII IX INTRODUCTION I. LOGIC AND THE FORGETFULNESS OF BEING II. THE FOUNDATION AND LIMITATION OF LOGIC III. HEJDEGGER'S "ATTACK" ON LOGIC: THE NOTHING IV. LOGIc VERSUS AUTHENTIC THOUGHT V. SYMBOLIC LOGIC: ITs DEVELOPMENT AND RELATION TO TECHNICITY 70 VI. LOGOS AND LANGUAGE: THE OVERCOMING OF TECHNICITY 93 CONCLUSION 110 Bibliography 120 Index 129

5 PREFACE Since his inaugural lecture at Freiburg in 1929 in which Heidegger delivered his most celebrated salvo against logic, he has frequently been portrayed as an anti-logician, a classic example of the obscurity resultant upon a rejection of the discipline of logic, a champion of the irrational, and a variety of similar things. Because many of Heidegger's statements on logic are polemical in tone, there has been no little misunderstanding of his position in regard to logic, and a great deal of distortion of it. All too frequently the position which is attacked as Heidegger's is a barely recognizable caricature of it. Heidegger has, from the very beginning of his career, written and said much on logic. Strangely enough, in view of all that he has said, his critique of logic has not been singled out as the subject of any of the longer, more detailed studies on the various aspects of his thought. There is, therefore, a need for a detailed presentation of precisely what Heidegger understands by logic, what role he accords to it, how it figures in his overall thought, what logic he "attacks" (if he does so), and why, in terms of the larger perspectives of his overall thought, he should hold the position that he does. Our first purpose in this work will therefore be to attempt to determine what Heidegger understands by logic, and in this way, it is to be hoped, to help to clear away some of the confusion which presently prevails regarding it. It may seem to some that the logic-question is not terribly important to his overall thought, but if it is recalled that for Heidegger the foundation of logic is AOYOc;" and that AOYOc;, constitutes one of the most fundamental aspects of Being, as well as being the foundation of language, the importance of the logic-question becomes apparent. Further, Heidegger has noted that since 1934 the logic-question has been transformed into the language problematic, and the importance of language to the thought of the late Heidegger could scarcely be overestimated. Therefore when we make notions such as AOYOc;" logic, and language

6 VIII PREFACE the object of our inquiry, we are dealing with questions which are very close to the heart of Heidegger's thought. And, as we hope to show, what is involved in Heidegger's critique of logic is nothing less than a total transformation of the way of conceiving of the nature of philosophy. The English translations of Heidegger's texts that occur are my own; I have given the German text in the footnotes so that the reader who might wish to compare the translation with the German text might easily do so. This has also permitted me to handle the translations with a greater degree of freedom, attempting to render what seemed to me to be the best sense of Heidegger's texts. A list of the abbreviations of Heidegger's works, together with the facts of publication will be found immediately preceding the text. All of the italics which occur, unless otherwise noted, are those of the author of the text in question.

7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ED Aus der Erfahrung des Denkens. Pfullingen: Neske, FW Der Feldweg. 3rd ed. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, SG Der Satz yom Grund. 2nd ed. Bern: Francke, DF Die Frage nach dem Ding. Tiibingen: Niemeyer, EM Einfiihrung in die Metaphysik. 2nd ed. Tiibingen: Niemeyer, HD Erlauterungen zu HOiderlins Dichtung. 2nd ed. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, G Gelassenheit. Pfullingen: Neske, HH Hebel-der Haus/reund. 2nd ed. Pfullingen: Neske, HW Holzwege. 3rd ed. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, ID Identital und DifJerenz. Pfullingen: Neske, KM Kant und das Problem der Metaphysik. 2nd ed. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, KTS Kants These uber das Sein. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, KB Die Kategorien- und Bedeutungslehre des Duns Scotus. Tiibingen: LU Die Lehre yom Urteil im Psychologismus. Ein kritisch-positiver Beitrag zur Logik. Leipzig: N Nietzsche. 2 vols. Pfullingen: Neske, PW Platons Lehre von der Wahrheit. 2nd ed. Bern: Francke, SZ Sein und Zeit. 8th ed. Tiibingen: Niemeyer, HB Uber den Humanismus. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, US Unterwegs zur Sprache. Pfullingen: Neske, WG Vom Wesen des Grundes. 4th ed. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, WW Vom Wesen der Wahrheit. 3rd ed. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, VA Vortrage und Au/satze. Pfullingen: Neske, WD Was heisst Denken? Tiibingen: Niemeyer, WM Was ist Metaphysik? 7th ed. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, WP Was ist das-die Philosophie? Pfullingen: Neske, ZS Zur Seins/rage. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, NF "Neuere Forschungen iiber Logik," Literarische Rundschau for das katholische Deutschland, XXXVIII (1912), cols , , P "Vom Wesen und Begriff der <t>u<h<;," Wegmarken. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1967.