Jean-Michel Serres, Composer-pianist (Apfel Café Music): Website

8 July 202022 August 2023

Note | Heidegger’s Concept of Dasein

By the definition on "Time and Being", Dasein is a human existence or each of human beings exist as themself. The existence has the superiority of existence or in ontology. Because Dasein owns the problem of the existence of the self itself when it exists, and can understand the self and other existences.

Heidegger intentionally used the word Dasein in order to make a question a whole real existence itself of a self, not an abstract general being or a somebody else’s business.

Originally, the word Dasein is a german word made by Christian Wolff, to translate a latin word existentia. The word means being existence distinguished by essentia (essence). Also nowadays, an ordinary german word Dasein means “being”, “living” or “presence”.

“Da-“ of the word Dasein means "real” also “place” the world opens for us, and the place means the place of Erschlossenheit (disclosure). The characteristics of the existence as a human is it exists in the place. So the word Dasein means the existence as a human, and is used to suggest the specific way of exist of this existence.

References

Gen Kida, Knowledge of Heidegger 88 (Shinshokan, 2002)

Michael Inwood, Heidegger: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 1997)

Mark Wrathall, How to Read Heidegger (Granta Books, 2005)

Note | Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

Nihilism

Good, justice, truth and beauty, such things are to be pursued and realized. The reason is “God” in Christianity or the idea of good by Plato. Friedrich Nietzsche named these thoughts think there is another dimension or world behind the real world, the theory of two world.

For Nietzsche, the theory of two world is not only fault but also unnecessary. Because the value is made by the psychological social mechanism in the real world. Losers bring the measure of moral and feel superior to winners, and these attitude made good and evil. The basis is loathing and ressentiment by weak people, and, by them, losers conter strong people and winners. So this slave morality is the root of good and evil. And all values were made by ressentiment. So Nietzsche thought any value has no value.

Eternal Return

In the real society, all of things are repetition of same things, and they last eternally. And, by nihilism, it clears up the value of good and evil are exaggeration, so we can’t say this society is better or worse. So this world is repetition of same things and eternal return.

Only Übermensch (superman) can accept and overcome nihilism and eternal return.

Will to Power

Inspired by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche created a concept of will to power as the essence of living nature (physis). View to the entire existences, the world continuously creates across the structure. Will to power is the will consistently want to stronger and bigger power. Will to power is an essential feature characterise life of organic beings. Also it’s the fondamental structure of the whole world regarded as a huge life system.

Perspectivism said by Nietzsche, is a mechanism fixes and oppresses will to power. Nihilism deconstructs values and some substances as the result of perspectivism, based on genelogy which traces back to each of their conditions and causes.

References

Jean-François Revel, Histoire de la philosophie occidentale (Nil Éditions, 1994)

Luc Ferry & Claude Capelier, La plus belle histoire de la philosophie (Éditions Points, 2014)

Roger-Pol Droit, Une brève histoire de la philosophie (Flammarion, 2008)

Bertrand Russell, The History of Western Philosophy (Simon & Schuster, 1972)

Nigel Warburton, A Little History of Philosophy (Yale University Press, 2011)

Roger Scruton, A Short History of Modern Philosophy (Routledge, 2002)

Gen Kida, History of Anti-Philosophy (Kodansha Academic Library, 2000)

Seiji Takeda & Ken Nishi, The First Histoty of Philosophy: To Think Profoundly (Yuhikaku, 1998)

Shigeto Nuki, Illustrated & Standard History of Philosophy (Shinshokan, 2008)

Shigeto Nuki, Philosophy Map (Chikuma New Books, 2004)

Sumihiko Kumano, The History of Western Philosophy: From The Modern Ages to The Present Day (Iwanami New Books, 2006)

Thierry Paquot & François Pépin, Dictionnaire Larousse de la Philosophie (Éditions Larousse, 2011)

Simon Blackburn, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (Second Edition Revised), (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Robert Audi, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (Second Edition), (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

Thomas Mautner, The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy (Second Edition), (Penguin Books, 2005)

Note | Philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer

Critical Successor to Kant and Fichte

German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer studied philosophy of Kant and Fichte as the basis, and made unique anti-rational philosophy as opposed to Hegelian rationalism.

The World of Will

Schopenhauer transformed the divide between the things-in-itself and phenomenon to will and representation. By Kant, time and space, and the world can be rationally recognized by causality. For Schopenhauer, the world like this is only a representation, and on the foundation and all things, there are bilinder Wille zum Leben (blind will to life) as things-in-itself. So the world is only a way of which blind will to life realize itself.

Will to Life

By Schopenhauer, we can understand the world of will through our bodies. Body is the direct expression of own will, and looked by outside, self represents as a body and which is a will itself. Will sensed directly and internally is seen by an objective view appears as a body.

Will mentioned by Schopenhauer isn’t the rational will like Kant. It’s an irrational and unconscious will to life closely connects to physical activities. This will has no rational intention, and is a will want to live impulsively or a blind impulse or nature.

Schopenhauer thought there’s unconscious “will to life” as a thing as it is on the ground of phenomenon of physics and life. Things we represent as a physical phenomenon are power, and the power is will. This will exists in the whole universe, can escape from the principle of sufficient reason, so the will is blind and impulsive.

Pessimism

The “will to life“ has no object, reason, aim and goal, so it’s never satisfied. So human life can’t reach the ultimate satisfaction. To live is to have a desire, and to have a desire means it doesn’t reach a satisfaction till now. So that human life is continuous suffering.

The present is unsatisfactory and suffering state continually. The gloomy desire only demands that the self want to live wholeheartedly. And the world in which wills struggle and dispute reciprocally, and desires attack each other. So the world is the worst (pesium) world. Therefore philsophy of Schopenhauer is called pessimism.

Art as a Consolation

By Schopenhauer, there are two ways to escape from suffering. The first is emancipation (deliverance) by art and the second is emancipation by moral.

Ordinary, human intellect is grasped by blind will and singular things. But on an activity of art, it is free from will and lead to the view point of theoria. And such an activity of theoria is “genius”. Plato thought the intuition of beauty directs the world of forms (ideas). Also Schopenhauer thought the beauty connects pure intuition to forms. On art, intellect views and feels (do theoria) trans-sensual ideas beyond time and space, and causalities “without interest”.

Schopenhauer regarded tragedy and music are very important. Especially music represents will itself. By the reason, he repotted music is the superior form of art. But this emancipation by art causes rarely, and is prestigious and temporary phenomenon.

Emancipation by Moral

By Schopenhauer, moral is more permanent and durable way of emancipation than art. Every human life is suffering after all. So moral must possess the principle of Mitleid (compassion or sympathy) as men are in hornet together. By compassion, we feel others’ sufferings as my own suffering. But this emancipation is momentary and temporary.

The ultimate emancipation thought by Schopenhauer is one denies and extinguishes will to life itself as the cause of suffering. The denying is only accomplished by ascetic life. The ascent can be realized by a religion like Buddhism. By this method, we can reach nihil, nothingnesses of self and the superior state of nirvana.