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As a consideration of alternatives, philosophy offers thinkers the opportunity to discuss ideas in a manner which does not commit the speaker to an absolute commitment, one way or the other. I find this particularly true of the use which this book makes of the comments of Rudolf Bultmann, who was about five years older than Heidegger, studied and taught at Marburg, and who gets mentioned in this book more often than the listings in the index:
31, 106, 128, 317, 265; Heidegger's correspondence with, 15-16.
The correspondence had not been published when this book was written. The first page listed, 31, mentions a conversation between Bultmann and Heidegger after World War II, not a time when Heidegger was open to suggestions about what other people thought he ought to do. The source of this information was a biography of Martin Heidegger by Hugo Ott, published in 1988. This book, THE HEIDEGGER CASE, also contains an article by Hugo Ott, "Biographical Bases for Heidegger's `Mentality of Disunity,' " which starts with a description by Heidegger of an inquisition, "in December 1945, when I was brought before the faculty in the inquisition's cross-examination to answer the twenty-three questions and I broke down completely, Dean Beringer of the Medical School (who had seen through the whole charade and the intentions of the accusers) came to me and simply took me away . . ." (p. 93). Ott explains that "Martin Heidegger was in need of very intensive medical care" (p. 95), which I tend to see as politically motivated, but "the medical care came from Professor Beringer himself, who was then the director of the University Psychiatric Clinic: Heidegger was placed in the sanatorium Schloss Hausbaden . . . from February to the end of May 1946. After that time, the psychotherapeutic treatment continued with Gebsattel." (p. 95). Even Archbishop Conrad Groeber was interested in his care, and sent a report to a priest in Rome. Ott is interested in the religious connection, even including a few lines in latin of famous Bible verses. "We should bear in mind the Twenty-third Psalm in discussing Heidegger." (p. 96). But Heidegger found more salvation in Luther than in the system which he considered "the essence of Catholic faith." (p. 106). Having seen the choice that Luther made, "After this, Heidegger came to be considered the Protestant who had come from Catholicism, . . . as Rudolf Bultmann wrote at the end of 1923 after participating in the St. Paul seminar that Heidegger offered following his call to Marburg." (p. 106).
The following selection, "Heidegger, Nietzsche, and Politics" by Otto Poeggeler, includes a portion of the letter from Bultmann, dated December 23, 1923, about his seminar on the ethics of St. Paul. "This time the seminar is especially instructive for me, due to the participation of our new philosopher, Heidegger, a student of Husserl. He comes from Catholicism, but is entirely Protestant. . . . The older generation is unable to participate, as its members no longer even understand the problem to which we are lending our efforts." (p. 122). Though the title for this subsection is "Decline and Destruction," the scientific advances of the century "which vastly lengthened the time of the origin of the universe," (p. 122) seemed to bring philosophy to a new consideration of time.
As an example of reading philosophy, the tenth selection, "A Comment on Heidegger's Comment on Nietzsche's Alleged Comment on Hegel's Comment on the Power of Negativity" by Leszek Kolakowski, checks out a comment in "Der Siegel" just after Heidegger's death, in which "Heidegger asserted that whoever had ears to hear knew that he had criticized the Nazi regime in his Nietzsche lectures." (p. 255). On the contrary, this selection is intended "to suggest, on one small point, that Heidegger employed his peculiar reading of Nietzsche to express--obliquely but clearly--his commitment to German imperialism." (p. 255). At this point, people who have been hearing anything about the Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago, might not be surprised that Leszek Kolakowski is listed in this book as a Professor there. The questions that are considered tend to be murky, even before Heidegger, and the philosophical attempt to come up with something positive, in spite of it all, ends with the conclusion that Heidegger "was not the only thinker whose work could have been employed for evil purposes without distortion, while at the same time it actually advanced in a seminal way the work of civilization." (p. 262).
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It starts off in Thebes. Amphitryon and Alcmene had a baby who was going to be the heir to the throne. It turns out that they're going to have two babies. This is a problem because if there is two prince babies, there will be a problem of succession. One baby was Hercules. He was twice the size of his twin brother Iphicles. Hercules was so big that people started to think he was a son of a god. Hera, who is the queen of gods, thought that Hercules was Zeus's son. So she sent two serpents to kill him. The two came and started to choke Hercules and his brother. His brother became unconsious, but Hercules just started to squeeze the life out of the snake choking him. He also took the other snake and tied them together. Iphicles had some broken ribs, but Hercules had bruises but no broken bones. Hera was very angry. Hercules grew and learned from a centaur Chiron. He taught Hercules many things. Hera forgot about Hercules for a while. Then she remembered him and she thought of a way to trick him. She gave him a vision. In the vision, she put a tall, grown man. He had a wife and kids. The man was angry and he struck his wife with his club and killed her. His two children screamed and tried to run away but he grabbed both of them and smashed their heads together. Seeing this, Hercules got scared. He was going to kill himself to prevent this from happening, but Hera said that if Hercules served the King Eurystheus in Mycenae for 12 years, he would be freed of this curse. Hercules went there at once. His first task was to kill the Nemean Lion and bring its hide to the king. The Nemean Lion was bigger than an elephant with teeth like daggers, claws like brass hooks, and a hide that no weapon can pierce. Hercules went the the Nemean Lion's territory. He killed it after using most of his weapons and finally stabbing its eye running at full speed with a spear. He cut the hide by using the lion's own claws. There were more tasks as dangerous as these. He was told to kill the Hydra, clean the Augean Stables in one day which was impossible without help, stealing red bulls from a a triple-bodied monster with 3 bodies and six legs and six arms all connected at the waist, and a few more near-impossible tasks. Hercules probably finishes them but thats for me to know and for you to find out by reading this book. I recommend this book to anybody who enjoys reading mythology books.
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The parallels with Don Quijote are readily apparent. First of all, the book consists of a series of humorous travel adventures; second, the travellers involved seem too innocent to survive in the harsh world that confronts them. When Joseph Andrews, the naive footman of Lady Booby, deflects the amorous advances of both her Ladyship and Slipslop, the Lady's servant, he is sent packing. Upon his dismissal, Joseph, along with his friend and mentor Parson Adams, an idealistic and good-hearted rural clergyman, who essentially takes the physical role of Sancho Panza but the moral role of Quijote, sets out to find his beloved but chaste enamorata, Fanny Goodwill, who had earlier been dismissed from Lady Booby's service as a result of Slipslop's jealousy. In their travels they are set upon repeatedly by robbers, continually run out of funds and Adams gets in numerous arguments, theological and otherwise. Meanwhile, Fanny, whom they meet up with along the way, is nearly raped any number of times and is eventually discovered to be Joseph's sister, or maybe not.. The whole thing concludes with a farcical night of musical beds, mistaken identities and astonishing revelations.
I've seen this referred to as the first modern novel; I'm not sure why, in light of it's obvious debt to Cervantes. But it does combine those quixotic elements with a seemingly accurate portrayal of 18th Century English manners and the central concern with identity and status do place it squarely in the modern tradition.
At any rate, it is very funny and, for whatever reason, seemed a much easier read than Tom Jones. I recommend it unreservedly.
GRADE: B+