GRGR (20) Special Topic: Is It OK to Be a Manichean?

[Paul Mackin]

On Thu, 17 Feb 2000, Lorentzen / Nicklaus wrote:

> 
> Paul Mackin schrieb:
> 
> > On Wed, 16 Feb 2000, Lorentzen / Nicklaus wrote:
> > > 
> > >   one day in the 20s a student in marburg said that he had come to study 
> > >   philosophy because he wanted to "improve his personality". heidegger, who
> >  was 
> > >   by accident around, simply answered: "better let it be". 
> 
> 
> > No basis to say what exactly improvement would be I guess.
> 
> 
>   it's not so much the "improvement", but the "personality". this word is, as 
>   you know, rooted in the latin "persona". & this means: "mask".
>                                                                      kfl
> 

So I'm guessing the German word the student used was "personlichkeit" and
Heidegger chose to pick up on the "persona" or "mask" connection. Would
that be a normal connotation for the word or was H. reaching? 
"Personality" in English has such a variety of usages--even outside of
the psychiatric ones, such as split personality, personality disorder, 
etc. In normal everyday American language especially when joined with
"improved," "pleasant" or "nice" the word often means degree of
attractiveness in a nonphysical sense. Dorothy Lamour's use of it as a
metonym for sexuality and sex appeal was highly ideosyncratic. 

Apologies for this disgression. Unfortunately it may happen again.

			P.