Heidegger and the measure of truth / by Denis McManus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McManus, Denis, 1967-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976.

Heidegger, Martin.

Ontology.

Physical Description:

xiii, 247 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Summary:

Denis McManus presents a new interpretation of Heidegger's early vision of our subjectivity and of the world we inhabit. Heidegger's 'fundamental ontology' allows us to understand the creature that thinks as also one which acts, moves, even touches the world around it, a creature at home in the same ordinary world in which we too live our lives when outside of the philosophical closet; it also promises to free us from seemingly intractable philosophical problems, such as scepticism about the external world and other minds. But many of the concepts central to that vision are elusive; and some of the most widely accepted interpretations of Heidegger's vision harbour within themselves deep and important unclarities, while others foist upon us hopeless species of idealism. Drawing on an examination of Heidegger's work throughout the 1920s, Heidegger and the Measure of Truth offers a new way of understanding that vision. Central is the proposal that propositional thought presupposes what might be called a 'measure', a mastery of which only a recognizably 'worldly' subject can possess. McManus shows how these ideas emerge through Heidegger's engagement with the history of philosophy and theology, and sets out a novel reading of key elements in the fundamental ontology, including Heidegger's concept of 'Being-in-the-world', his critique of scepticism, his claim to disavow both realism and idealism, and his difficult reflections on the nature of truth, science, authenticity, and philosophy itself. According to this reading, Heidegger's central claims identify genuine demands that we must meet if we are to achieve the feat of thinking determinate thoughts about the world around us. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I

1 The Concept of 'Constitution' 11

1.1 'Constitution' and a phenomenological project 11

1.2 The project illustrated: The objecthood of God and the 'how' of Christian faith 17

1.3 Further 'original havings' 20

2 'Constitution' and the Categories 28

2.1 Con-formity and the 'application' of the categories 28

2.2 Constitution and idealism 35

2.3 'Living in the categories' 37

2.4 Intimations of 'Being-in-the-world' and the vanishing of talk of 'constitution' 41

2.5 The 'subject-correlates' of science and philosophy 45

Part II

3 Vorhandenheit 51

3.1 Themes in the discussion of Vorhandenheit 53

3.2 Vorhandenheit and assertion 59

3.3 Vorhandenheit and science 62

3.4 Vorhandenheit and Zuhandenheit 68

4 Dreyfus's Concept of the 'Background' 76

4.1 What is the 'background' meant to do for us? 77

4.2 A first 'regress of rules' 80

4.2.1 Rules for applying rules 80

4.2.2 A problem to be solved or dissolved? The 'master thesis' and 'depicturization' 81

4.3 A second 'regress of rules' 89

4.3.1 The impossibility of 'spelling out' 'ceteris paribus rules' 89

4.3.2 A problem to be solved or dissolved? 'Closure' and the 'view from sideways on' 92

Part III

5 The Measure of Truth 103

5.1 Constitution and measure 105

5.2 'Empty intending' and truth as 'fulfilment' 107

5.3 'Living in the Hinblick' 111

5.4 A skeleton for some themes of the fundamental ontology 115

5.4.1 An abstract case for our 'Being-in-the-world' 118

5.4.2 Heidegger's critique of scepticism 123

5.4.3 Truth I: The puzzles of BT sec. 44 125

5.4.4 Truth II: Measures and methods of comparison 130

6 The 'Founding' of Measurement in Understanding without Fit 135

6.1 Understanding without fit: Manipulating the Zuhanden 138

6.2 The 'founding' of measurement 141

6.3 Objections and clarifications 144

6.3.1 'Impure beholding' and the manipulating/seeing distinction 144

6.3.2 Improvement in methods of measurement 146

6.3.3 'Impure facts 'I: Projection, falsification, parochialism, and perspectives 148

6.4 'Appropriating' or 'being lived by' one's measures 154

6.4.1 'Impure facts' II: Artefacts and emptiness 154

6.4.2 A sketch of an example: Methodological fetishism in psychology 156

6.4.3 Emptiness and inauthenticity 159

Part IV

7 Being-in-the-World and Truth Revisited 165

7.1 The 'soul/external world gulf' 165

7.2 Finite knowing, 'presupposing truth', 'living in the truth' and 'in untruth' 166

7.3 'Empty intending', 'logical space', and the 'most obvious objection' 174

7.4 On the 'real/ideal gulf' 176

7.5 Truth's dependency on Dasein 181

8 Vorhandenheit and Zuhandenheit Revisited 190

8.1 Zuhandenheit revisited 190

8.2 Vorhandenheit and the Theoretical Attitude revisited 193

8.3 Seinsvergessenheit and 'Vorhandenheit in the broadest sense' 195

8.4 Vorhandenheit and assertion revisited 198

8.5 Inauthenticity and the 'double meaning' of the 'Theoretical Attitude' 202

9 Metaphilosophical Issues and Further Questions 208

9.1 'Original havings' and the 'Being and Time' project 210

9.2 Recalling the measure 215

9.3 Philosophy's 'subject-correlate' revisited 222.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199694877

0199694877

OCLC:

809083026