Nate
"Heidegger has always been for me the essential philosopher. I began by
reading Hegel, then Marx, and I set out to read Heidegger in 1951 or 1952;
then in 1952 or 1953... I read Nietzsche... My entire philosophical
development was determined by my reading of Heidegger. I nevertheless
recognise that Nietzsche outweighed him [l'a emporte]... It is probable that
if I had not read Heidegger, I would not have read Nietzsche. I had tried to
read Nietzsche in the fifties but Nietzsche alone said nothing to me -
whereas Nietzsche and Heidegger: that was a philosophical shock! (Dits et
ecrits Vol IV, p. 703; Politics, Philosophy, Culture p. 250)
Is the best known...
Endorsing Rabinow & Dreyfus, Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics:
"presents a very clear and intelligent analysis of the work that I have
attempted to do. Resolving many misunderstandings, it offers an accurate,
synthetic view. Through parallels with Heidegger, the first part gives a
general overview of the problems with which European philosophy has dealt
since the war" (back cover of early editions)
"I was surprised when two of my friends in Berkeley wrote something about me
and said that Heidegger was influential... Of course, it was quite true, but
no one in France has ever perceived it" (Technologies of the Self, p. 12)
There are others, but these are surely the most significant.
Finally, but not in English, in L'Hermeneutique du sujet lecture course
Foucault is asked by one of his auditors about role of Lacanian concepts in
his thinking of the issues of truth and subjectivity. Foucault suggests that
in the twentieth century, there have not been many people who have raised
questions of truth, the subject and the relation between the two. For him,
there are only two: Heidegger and Lacan. As he thinks people will have
guessed, it is starting from Heidegger that he has tried to think through
these issues (pp. 180-2). In particular Foucault is taking up Heidegger's
question of how a particular understanding of techne and the concomitant
knowledge of the object was central to understanding how being came to be
forgotten. For Foucault it is important to ask how this notion of techne is
related to the formation of the Western subject, and the relations of
freedom, constraint, truth and error which are associated with it (p. 505).
I've said loads about this relation on the list before. I won't go on about
it again now.
Best wishes
Stuart
"Heidegger has always been for me the essential philosopher. I began by
reading Hegel, then Marx, and I set out to read Heidegger in 1951 or 1952;
then in 1952 or 1953... I read Nietzsche... My entire philosophical
development was determined by my reading of Heidegger. I nevertheless
recognise that Nietzsche outweighed him [l'a emporte]... It is probable that
if I had not read Heidegger, I would not have read Nietzsche. I had tried to
read Nietzsche in the fifties but Nietzsche alone said nothing to me -
whereas Nietzsche and Heidegger: that was a philosophical shock! (Dits et
ecrits Vol IV, p. 703; Politics, Philosophy, Culture p. 250)
Is the best known...
Endorsing Rabinow & Dreyfus, Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics:
"presents a very clear and intelligent analysis of the work that I have
attempted to do. Resolving many misunderstandings, it offers an accurate,
synthetic view. Through parallels with Heidegger, the first part gives a
general overview of the problems with which European philosophy has dealt
since the war" (back cover of early editions)
"I was surprised when two of my friends in Berkeley wrote something about me
and said that Heidegger was influential... Of course, it was quite true, but
no one in France has ever perceived it" (Technologies of the Self, p. 12)
There are others, but these are surely the most significant.
Finally, but not in English, in L'Hermeneutique du sujet lecture course
Foucault is asked by one of his auditors about role of Lacanian concepts in
his thinking of the issues of truth and subjectivity. Foucault suggests that
in the twentieth century, there have not been many people who have raised
questions of truth, the subject and the relation between the two. For him,
there are only two: Heidegger and Lacan. As he thinks people will have
guessed, it is starting from Heidegger that he has tried to think through
these issues (pp. 180-2). In particular Foucault is taking up Heidegger's
question of how a particular understanding of techne and the concomitant
knowledge of the object was central to understanding how being came to be
forgotten. For Foucault it is important to ask how this notion of techne is
related to the formation of the Western subject, and the relations of
freedom, constraint, truth and error which are associated with it (p. 505).
I've said loads about this relation on the list before. I won't go on about
it again now.
Best wishes
Stuart