Philosophy Of Language Essay Research Paper Man

Philosophy Of Language Essay, Research Paper

Man initially thought that language afforded him a better knowledge of things rather than merely a designation of things. However, this is based on an exact notion of things, and no exactness exists; identity can only be conceptual, for there is nothing in life that is identical. The mythology of language rests in this search for the exactness of things and the schematization of our world.

Language evolved simultaneously with consciousness, for we felt the need to communicate. Language fills this need, but it produces only a vague and shallow reflection of what we are thinking, for only small amounts of man’s thoughts are brought into consciousness. Our thoughts are captured and translated into the perspective of the herd, thus this herd rules our consciousness. Only the average in someone is expressed and becomes part of the herd, for we only know what is “useful” in terms of the herd. It becomes difficult for one to know oneself, for the thoughts of which we are tangibly conscious are only those that we can communicate, and such are only a vague mirror.

The attempt of science and tragic drama to schematize things eventually gives over to eruption of life and will that is in no way bounded. The laughter of the gods is a celebration of life for it is acknowledgment of life. Everything erupts in a celebration of whatever is, amor fatis, a celebration of fate. We have three metamorphoses of the spirit: camel, which bears the wisdom of the past, lion, which rejects past wisdom for her own idea, and child, the creative being. We must pass through these stages in order to become free of lessons that we have not taught our selves that hinder our creative and independent will. Reality is will.

HEIDEGGER

Heidegger strives to understand and explain Being, which is separate and much grander than our being, but also inherently intertwined. The concepts explained here are from Letter on Humanism, Being and Time, and The Origin of the Work of Art. Being is the Being of our being, but it must be allowed to Be through us. Human beings are distinct because for us, Being is a question. A simple definition of space, such as a rock, is not Being. We have a relationship of care and concern with others in the world.

According to Heidegger, human being is a unique being in the world with others towards death; he calls this Dasein. He believes that there is an understanding and sensibility to Being and we must be open to all the possible multiple expressions of Being. Life is not about doing, but about being, for when one simply “be’s,” one becomes a vehicle for Being. Ek-sistence is the state in which the essence of man preserves the only source that determines him, and I think that the source determining him is Being. The authenticity of one’s existence depends not on action but on the recognition of the self-disclosing character of oneself: by not acting intentionally, one can truly ek-sist. In order to truly ek-sist, one must let things be and come to live; instead of acting or making, one must create a space in which one can understand something.

There is a difference between us speaking and Being speaking. “Language is the house of Being” (Basic Writings 217). Being is not predicated by Being, thus Being knows itself through the language of man only when man is passive. When actions, including language, are intentional, they lose their meaning and disappear into the contrived reality, and thus become chatter. When we speak through intended action we retard Being from exuding; thus passiveness is the trait that allows Being to speak through us. We act as the shepherd of Being, guarding Being with language. Being only knows itself through the language of man, thus Being does not really exist, but through man, it ek-sists. Language is a buffer between Being and us. Poetry tries to find a voice rather than just chatter. Chatter is inauthentic speech, it is the talk about rather than the expression of Being; we have fallen away from being and the life has fallen out of our language.

Language is used to allow communication along routes of unlimited accessibility of all things to all people, thus language is dictated in the public realm because it decides what is intelligible and what should be discarded.

Language needs a place where it still has meaning and life. In The Way to Language, Heidegger declares that language speaks, and language says something when it speaks. Language addresses people and things in the world, acknowledging them as matters of concern; it shows and points. By showing and pointing, language introduces a capacity for beings and things to come into their presence in the world. Our world then becomes “the realm in which we dwell as the mortals, those who are needed and are used for the speaking of language” (Basic Writings 423).

Thinking is of Being because it belongs to Being and listens to Being … “thinking is the thinking of Being” (Basic Writings 220). Through thinking, we see the truth of Being, and Being comes to language. However, Being is unthought because the thinking that reaches the truth of Being is only historical. “Assuming in the future that man will be able to think the truth of Being, he will think from ek-sistence. Man stands ek-sistingly in the destiny of Being” (Basic Writings 239). Man can only occur in his essence when he is claime