grgr: overcoming of metaphysics

[Terrance]

Lorentzen / Nicklaus wrote:
> 
> 
>  "one thing it is to only use earth, another to conceive earth' blessing and to
>  become native in the law of this conception for guarding the secret of being
>  and keeping watch over the invulnerability of the possible."
> 
>  this is m.o.p.a.t from heidegger's article "überwindung der metaphysik". you
>  can find it in "vorträge und aufsätze", stuttgart 1954, here page 94. the
>  original goes:
> 
>  "eines ist es, die erde nur zu nutzen, ein anderes, den segen der erde zu
>  empfangen und im gesetz dieser empfängnis heimisch zu werden, um das geheimnis
>  des seins zu hüten und über die unverletzlichkeit des möglichen zu wachen."
> 
>   to me this sounds quite similar to pynchon's implicit philosophy. especially
>   in m&d and gr.
> 
>  kfl (- who will give you more heidegger in the final section)

For Heidegger, objects in the world which we perceive as
tools, say a rock that we perceive as a hammer when we are
looking to drive a stick into the ground, already contain
within themselves signals of their role within human
purpose. In Pynchon   Heidegger's view, is ridiculed,  Benny
Profane. Heideggar's classic example of the hammer, the
hammer that does not fulfill its purpose or meaning until it
is hammering, a nice combination of Plato's view and
Aristotle's, becomes an extension profaned. In the Byron the
Bulb episode, Eddie has grown an electronic component in his
brain and the Irish workhorse cranks the generator.
Activity, work, in Heideggers' terms, it is in the act of
building that the hammer is an extension of the primordial
man, the Zeug becomes increasingly intuitive, requiring less
and less thought. Anyone that has become proficient with a
simple tool like a hammer or a an ax knows this experience.
Zeug is part of the Dasein of human existence, a Being that
encompasses the presence of all parts of the Umweltnatur
that is all around us. Another example from Heidegger:

In roads, streets, bridges, our concern discovers nature as
having some definite direction. A covered railway platform
takes account of bad weather; an installation fro public
lighting takes account of the darkness....When we look we
see the clock, we tacitly make use of the "sun's position."
...When we make use of the the clock equipment, which is
proximally and inconspicuously ready-to-hand, the environing
Nature is ready-to-hand also. ---Being and Time

With is play of language Heidegger attempts to reject and
accept technology at the same time. This is where I think
Pynchon agrees with him. Technic is a fact, not the problem,
nor the solution, a human fact. To be human is be
technological. The same holds true of language, logocentric
or whatever. Again, I suggest the best 50 pages to read on
this outside of Pynchon is Palto's Phaedrus.