The Time of Life

William Mcneill

Description

The Time of Life explores Heidegger's rethinking of ethics and of the ethical in terms of an understanding of the original Greek notion of ēthos. Engaging the ethical in Heidegger's thought in relation to Aristotle, Michel Foucault, and Friedrich Hölderlin, William McNeill examines the way in which Heidegger's thought shifts our understanding of ethics away from a set of theoretically constructed norms, principles, or rules governing practice toward an understanding of the ethical as our concrete way of Being in the world.

Central to this study is the consideration of the ethical in relation to time: the time of biological life, the time of human life as biographical and historical, the temporality of human action, and the historicality of human thought. In addition, this book critically examines the predicament of ethical responsibility in a scientific-technological era, considering how the world of modern science and technology call upon us to rethink the nature of ethical responsibilities.

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction

1. The Phenomenon of Life: Human, Animal, and World in Heidegger's 1929-30 Freiburg Lectures

The Soul, Unity of the Body
The Organism and its Organs
The Animal as Other
The Being of the Animal: Organism and Environment
The Phenomenon of World
The Time of Life: Self and World

2. Care for the Self: Originary Ethics in Heidegger and Foucault

Heidegger: Selfhood and the Finitude of Time
Foucault: Ethos and the Practice of Freedom
Care for the Self and the Task of Philosophizing

3. Apportioning the Moment: Time and Ethos in Heidegger's Reading of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Rhetoric

Koinønia: Ethos and Community
Time and Ethical Virtue

4. The Time of Action: From Phenomenology of Praxis to the Historicality of Being

The Moment as the Site of Human Action: Heidegger's Reading of Aristotle and the Phenomenology of Dasein
The Moment as the Time of Ereignis: From Phenomenology to the History of Being

5. Historical Beginnings: Moment and Rupture in Heidegger's Work of the 1930s

Ethos and Concealment: The Power of Beginnings
History and Origin: The Irruption of Worlds

6. Ethos and Poetic Dwelling: Inaugural Time in Heidegger's Dialogue with Hölderlin

Temporality, Attunement, and the Phenomenology of World
Inaugural Time in Hölderlin's Poetizing
Is There a Measure on Earth? Poetizing and Human Ethos
The Eclipse of Experience: Exposure and Dwelling in Greek Tragedy
The Festival

7. The Telling of Ethos: Heidegger, Aristotle, Sophocles

A "Scarcely Pondered Word": Aristotle's Testimony
Theoria and Tragedy: Aristotle's Poetics
Theoria and Katharsis
"The Purest Poem": Heidegger's Antigone

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Épistémologie
• Philosophie de l'esprit
• Éthique et morale
• Ethique et morale
• Epistémologie
• Epistémologie
• Epistémologie

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791481615
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

THE TIME OF LIFE

SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy Dennis J. Schmidt, editor

The Time of Life ¯ Heidegger and Ethos

W ILLIAM  M C N EILL

State University of New York Press

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2006 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2384

Production by Ryan Hacker Marketing by Susan M. Petrie

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

McNeill, William, 1961– The time of life : Heidegger and ´thos / William McNeill. p. cm. — (SUNY series in contemporary continental philosophy) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-7914-6783-X (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Heidegger, Martin, 1889–1976. 2. Ethics. I. Title. II. Series.

B3279.H49M3763 2006 193—dc22

13-digit ISBN: 978-0-7914-6783-1 (hardcopy : alk. paper)

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2005024121

Zu eng begränzt ist unsere Tageszeit Wir sind und sehn und staunen, schon Abend ists, Wir schlafen und vorüberziehn wie Sterne die Jahre der Völker alle.

The time of our day is too narrowly spanned We are and look and are astonished, already it is evening, We sleep and like stars pass over The years of all the peoples. —Friedrich Hölderlin, “Rousseau”

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Acknowledgments Introduction Abbreviations

Contents

Chapter One. The Phenomenon of Life: Human, Animal, and World in Heidegger’s 1929–30 Freiburg Lectures The Soul, Unity of the Body The Organism and its Organs The Animal as Other The Being of the Animal: Organism and Environment The Phenomenon of World The Time of Life: Self and World

Chapter Two. Care for the Self: Originary Ethics in Heidegger and Foucault Heidegger: Selfhood and the Finitude of Time ¯ Foucault:Ethos and the Practice of Freedom Care for the Self and the Task of Philosophizing

¯ Chapter Three. Apportioning the Moment: Time andEthos in Heidegger’s Reading of Aristotle’sNicomachean Ethics andRhetoric ¯ Koinønia:EthosCommunity and Time and Ethical Virtue

Chapter Four. The Time of Action: From Phenomenology of Praxis to the Historicality of Being The Moment as the Site of Human Action: Heidegger’s Reading of Aristotle and the Phenomenology ofDasein The Moment as the Time ofEreignis: From Phenomenology to the History of Being

ix xi xix

1 3 5 16 25 33 42

53 56 66 72

77 79 85

9

5

9

6

107

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CONTENTS

Chapter Five. Historical Beginnings: Moment and Rupture in Heidegger’s Work of the 1930s ¯ EthosConcealment: The Power of Beginnings and History and Origin: The Irruption of Worlds

¯ Chapter Six.EthosPoetic Dwelling: Inaugural Time in and Heidegger’s Dialogue with Hölderlin Temporality, Attunement, and the Phenomenology of World Inaugural Time in Hölderlin’s Poetizing ¯ Is There a Measure on Earth? Poetizing and HumanEthos The Eclipse of Experience: Exposure and Dwelling in Greek Tragedy The Festival

¯ Chapter Seven. The Telling ofEthos: Heidegger, Aristotle, Sophocles A “Scarcely Pondered Word”: Aristotle’s Testimony Theøria and Tragedy: Aristotle’sPoetics Theøria andKatharsis “The Purest Poem”: Heidegger’s Antigone

Notes Bibliography Index

115 116 122

133

135 139 143

145 150

153 155 167 178 192

199 219 223

Acknowledgments

Several chapters in the present volume have appeared in earlier form: Chapter 1 is a revised version of the essay “Life Beyond the Organ- ism,” which appeared inAnimal Others: On Ethics, Ontology, and Ani- mal Life, edited by H. Peter Steeves (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999, 197–248). An early version of chapter 2 was pub- lished in the journalPhilosophy Today, volume 42:1 (Spring 1998, 53– 64). Copyright 1998 by DePaul University, all rights reserved. Chapter 4 was originally published as “The Time ofContributions to Philosophy” in:Companion to Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy, edited by Charles E. Scott, Susan M. Schoenbohm, Daniela Vallega-Neu, and Alejandro Vallega (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001, 129–49). Portions of chapter 7 have appeared as “A Scarcely Pondered Word. The Place of Tragedy: Heidegger, Aristotle, Sophocles” inPhi- losophy and Tragedy, edited by Miguel de Beistegui and Simon Sparks (London: Routledge, 2000, 169–89). The author is grateful to DePaul University for a period of re- search leave during the academic year 2002–03 that enabled this project to be completed. I thank DePaul University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for a summer research grant in 2002 that provided addi- tional support, and for the opportunity to present publicly some of this work within the College. I am grateful to my research assistant, Kristina Lebedeva, for her careful reading of the manuscript, and to my reviewers for State University of New York Press, for their helpful comments and advice. Above all, I thank my wife Kim for her patience, understanding, and unflinching support. Finally, I wish to thank my graduate assistants Daw-Nay Evans and Maureen Melnyk for their generous help with indexing and proof-reading.

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