Heidegger and Aristotle: The Question of Being

263 Pages·1996·13 MB·English

by  Ted Sadler

Heidegger and Aristotle
The Question of Being
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Heidegger and
Aristotle
The Question of Being
Ted Sadler
ATHLONE
London & Adantic Highlands, NJ
First published 1996 by
The Athlone Press
1 Park Drive, London NW11 7SG
and 165 First Avenue,
Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716
© Ted Sadler, 1996
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 0485 114860
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sadler, Ted, 1952-
Heidegger and Aristotle : the question of being / Ted
Sadler.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-485-11486-0 (hb)
1. Ontology.
2. Heidegger, Martin, 1889—1976—Contributions in ontology.
3. Aristotle—Contributions in ontology. I. Title.
B331.S18 1997
Ill/.092'2-dc20 96-18167
CIP
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-
duced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying
or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher.
Set in 11.5 pt Bembo by Bibloset
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Bookcraft (Bath) Ltd., Midsomer Norton, Somerset
Contents
Preface viii
Note on References and Method of Citation xi
Introduction 1
1 Metaphysics and the Question of Being 1
2 The Question of Aristotle 10
3 Method and Outlook of the Present Study 18
4 Heidegger's Aristotle-Interpretation in Contemporary
Context 22
5 Plato and the Presocratics 31
Chapter I: Being and the Ousiological Reduction 38
1 Seinsvergessenheit and Everydayness 38
2 Ontology and Temporality: The Significance of
'Presence' 43
3 The Question of Being as the Question of Ousia 46
4 Ousia and Categorial Being 51
5 The Concept of Phusis and Aristotle's Ousiological
Physics 58
6 Time and Ousiological Ontology 68
7 Ousia and Presence 74
8 Ousiological and Supra-Ousiological Philosophy 81
vi Heidegger and Aristotle
Chapter II: Truth, Language, and Logic 96
1 The True and the Seeable 96
2 The Structure and Method of Aristotelian Philosophy 98
3 Truth and Logos 113
4 Seinsdenken and Scientific Knowledge 128
5 The Truth of Being: Heidegger and the Platonic 'to
agathon' 133
Chapter III: Human Existence 141
1 The Question of Practice 141
2 Phronesis, Sophia, and Existential Understanding 150
3 Existence, Being, and Attunement 158
4 The Aristotelian God 168
5 Religion and the Seinsfrage 172
6 Time and Being 182
Conclusion 199
Notes 202
Bibliography 237
Index 249
Although it is very difficult if not impossible in this life to
achieve certainty about these questions, at the same time
it is utterly feeble not to use every effort in testing the
available theories, or to leave off before we have considered
them in every way, and come to the end of our resources.
(Plato, Phaedo 84d)
Preface
There is a marked tendency in contemporary commentary to
downplay, or altogether explain away, what could be called
the 'absolutist' dimension in the thought of leading modern
philosophers. We see this is the case of Kant, where his
philosophy is purged of the 'noumenal' realm to become a
mere analytic of scientific knowledge; in the case of Hegel,
where his 'metaphysical theology' is dismissed in favour of a
'dialectic of the finite'; in the case of Nietzsche, where his
'Dionysian life-affirmation' is subordinated to an allegedly
pluralistic 'perspectival' epistemology. And we see this also
in the case of Heidegger, where his 'question of Being'
is regarded as a kind of nostalgic overlay to what is an
otherwise useful 'hermeneutical philosophy'. It would seem
that these great thinkers share the same peculiar weakness,
the same peculiar predilection for an 'absolute' standard of
being, truth, value, human existence etc., which it is the task
of we moderns, coming along in their trail and to a large
extent thinking o/f them, to admonish and correct. Perhaps,
however, one need not have an attitude of slavish servility to
traditional canons of greatness to make pause, and to wonder
how precisely those thinkers who have so much to offer us
could not only fall into error on elementary points, but could
make these 'errors' the very foundation of their philosophies.
One might wonder whether the challenges represented by
Preface ix
these philosophers are really met when what they themselves
regarded as most important is ruled out from the beginning as
'unmodern' or 'epistemologically inadmissible', so that atten-
tion may focus on topics which they saw as subsidiary and
dependent. One might also wonder whether the oft-heard
desideratum of 'relevance' is misapplied when we measure
these philosophers against the self-evidencies of today, or
whether, on the contrary, it is much more a matter of own
own ability to be relevant, of our own preparedness to enter
into questions which are intrinsically relevant. In any case,
it is a presupposition of the present study that Heidegger's
question of Being, however elusive it may be, however
unmodern and jarring to the sensibilities of those for whom
nihilism and relativism have become second nature, however
resistant to 'practical application', is the living centre of his
philosophy and as such the point from which all other aspects
of his thought must be comprehended. Since Heidegger
develops this leading motif in sustained controversy with
Aristotelian metaphysics, I have attempted to indicate the
basic issues which belong to the question 'Heidegger and
Aristotle'. Whether this question signifies a true 'battle of
the giants', to be reformulated as the question 'Heidegger or
Aristotle?' remains, in the end, unresolved. Heidegger himself
did not think otherwise: what he wanted was to reopen the
problem of the Aristotelian foundations of metaphysics, to
demonstrate a new path for thinking this problem through.
It is not a matter of'keeping to' Heidegger's path, but of what
might be gained by exploring it.
It is my hope that this book will interest readers coming
from two directions. On the one hand, those who already
have some familiarity with Heidegger, but who wish to know
more of his relation to Aristotle, will find here (for the first
time in English, as far as I know) a relatively systematic and
comprehensive laying out of the terrain of this problem. On
the other hand, those whose knowledge of Heidegger is only
scanty, but who possess a more solid background in Aristotle
and Greek philosophy, may find in this text a convenient