Spring, Week 9 Meeting

The Final Meeting

For our final meeting, the fates (aka the Social Science division) threw a party for us, with food and beer and a live band! So we: sat out on the grass, drank beer and ate burgers and brownies and chips. We talked about: how we felt reading §83 (the last section), Heidegger's philosophical reasons for ending with questions, the hermeneutic circle, how temporality is supposed to count as an explanation of dasein's being and being in general, whether §83 takes back the project or transitions to the next Division, the incompleteness of SZ, whether ontology requires an ontic basis, the motto 'ways, not works,' the so-called 'turn' in Heidegger's thinking (from dasein to being), whether Heidegger recants the project of SZ or builds on it in his later thinking, what it means for authentic cases of dasein to be prepared to take back resolutions, whether Heidegger must be authentic to write SZ, whether we must be authentic to read it, whether SZ is therapeutically designed to make us authentic, whether the text teaches us how to read it, Strauss, the Heidegger / Carnap affair, what it means to say that "the nothing nothings," the distinction between Heidegger's 'What is Metaphysics?' (1929), Introduction to Metaphysics (1935) and Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics (1929), congratulations to Jim on his award!, congratulations to Nathana on her award!, what we were like in high school, the tendency to treat being as a cosmic entity distinct from dasein, the fact that being or intelligibility escapes, in part, our will and choice, our fundamental passivity with respect to being, uncanniness (Kate's dissertation), transcendental arguments (Nate's dissertation), the coming (oil) apocalypse, das Man in a post-apocalyptic society, what is das Man anyway?, whether das Man understands itself as without beginning or end, Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, das Man's flight from death, why dasein tends to understand being as presence-at-hand, the band's lyrics (referring to illegal immigrants and terrorists having the blues), the significance and datability of world-time – appropriate and inappropriate times for activities, the difference between world-time and 'now-time' (or 'ordinary time'), Jim's dad, the extent to which authenticity involves a radical relationship to das Man, whether Plenty Coups was sufficiently dissatisfied, the relationship between authenticity and action, how to be environmentally authentic, the crisis in women's history described in a paper that floated by on the wind.

Thanks to everyone who did the reading, came to the meetings, asked tough philosophical questions and suggested interpretations of the text. We really enjoyed getting to know you and getting to know Heidegger better as a group, and are excited about the possibility of doing something similar next year. We all seemed to have learned a lot and gained a greater appreciation for Being and Time. Good luck finishing up the year and have a fun summer!