Thursday, April 29, 2010

The Heidegger Rector address: the Wolin variant of the Derrida quote

As found in Richard Wolin, The Heidegger Controversy: a Critical Reader
If we will the essence of science in the sense of {italic the question, unsheltered standing firm in the midst of the uncertainty of the totality of being}. then {italic this} will to essence will creat for our Volk a world of the innermost and most extreme danger, i.e., a truly {italic spiritual} world. For "spirit" is neither empty ecumen nor the noncommittal play of wit nor the busy practice of never-ending rational analysis nor even world reason; rather, spirit is the determined resolve to the essence of Being, a resolve that is attuned to origins and knowing. And the {italic spiritual world} of a Volk is not its cultural superstructure. just as little as it is its arsenal of useful knowledge [Kentnisse] and values; rather, it is the power that comes from preserving at the most profound level the forces that are rooted in the soil and blood of a Volk, the power to arouse most inwardly and to shake most extensively the Volk's existence. A spiritual world alone will guarantee our Volk greatness. For it will make the constant decision between the will to greatness and the toleration of decline the law that establishes the pace for the march upon which our Volk has embarked on the way to its future history.
I will use Curl to compare the Derrida variant in Of Spirit and the challenge of presenting this singular text.
Then there is the issue of whether Jaspers was being deceptive in his reception.

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