transgression selection #14

Selection #14: What possibilities generated this thought from which
everything, up until our time, has seemingly diverted us, but as if to
lead us to the point of its returning? From what impossibilities does it
derive its hold on us? Undoubtedly it can be said that it comes to us
through the opening made by Kant in Western philosophy when he
articulated, in a manner which is still enigmatic, metaphysical discourse
and his reflection on the limits of reason. However, Kant ended by closing
this opening when he ultimately relegated all critical investigations to
an anthropological question; and undoubtedly, we have subsequently
interpreted Kant's action as the granting of an indefinite respite to
metaphysics, because dialectics substituted for the questionioning of
being and limits the play of contradiction and totality. To awaken us from
the confused sleep of dialectics and of anthropology, we required the
Nietzschean figures of tragedy, of Dionysus, of the death of God, of the
philosopher's hammer, of the Superman approaching with the steps of a
dove, of the Return.

The above is quite condensed. I want to break the same selection
up and comment on it; I would very much like to be corrected
by anyone who sees an error.


Selection #14: What possibilities generated this thought from which
everything, up until our time, has seemingly diverted us, but as if to
lead us to the point of its returning?

Generated what thought? I suggested earlier that this might
be the thought from _BT_, "only as an aesthetic phenomenon is
the world justified."

>From what impossibilities does it
derive its hold on us? Undoubtedly it can be said that it comes to us
through the opening made by Kant in Western philosophy when he
articulated, in a manner which is still enigmatic, metaphysical discourse
and his reflection on the limits of reason.

In other words, Kant's discovery or insight that perception
was regulated both in form and content by the "categories"
of the human mind. Thus Kant is making an important concession
to the "aesthetic phenomenon" position.

However, Kant ended by closing
this opening when he ultimately relegated all critical investigations to
an anthropological question;

Is the idea here that Kant tried to shunt off the critical
effect of an aesthetic treatment of nature and society by
restricting it to the "anthropological" side of his studies?

and undoubtedly, we have subsequently
interpreted Kant's action as the granting of an indefinite respite to
metaphysics, because dialectics substituted for the questionioning of
being and limits the play of contradiction and totality.

Whereas Kant dealt with the limits of our being and knowing
as solitary subjects, dialectics provided one more
transcendent read of the limit-transgression dynamic.

To awaken us from
the confused sleep of dialectics and of anthropology, we required the
Nietzschean figures of tragedy, of Dionysus, of the death of God, of the
philosopher's hammer, of the Superman approaching with the steps of a
dove, of the Return.

What's confused sleep like? Sleep is confused when
dreams seems too real. How do dialectics and
anthropology produce such a confused kind of sleep?
Why are these particular features and figures
from Nietzsche's corpus mentioned?

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