Speaking Being: Werner Erhard, Martin Heidegger, and a New Possibility of Being Human

Description

Speaking Being: Werner Erhard, Martin Heidegger, and a New Possibility of Being Human is an unprecedented study of the ideas and methods developed by the thinker Werner Erhard. In this book, those ideas and methods are revealed by presenting in full an innovative program he developed in the 1980s called The Forum—available in this book as a transcript of an actual course led by Erhard in San Francisco in December of 1989. Since its inception, Erhard’s work has impacted the lives of millions of people throughout the world. Central to this study is a comparative analysis of Erhard’s rhetorical project, The Forum, and the philosophical project of Martin Heidegger. Through this comparative analysis, the authors demonstrate how each thinker’s work sometimes parallels and often illuminates the other. The dialogue at work in The Forum functions to generate a language which speaks being. That is, The Forum is an instance of what the authors call ontological rhetoric: a technology of communicating what cannot be said in language. Nevertheless, what does get said allows those participating in the dialogue to discover previously unseen aspects of what it currently means to be human. As a primary outcome of such discovery, access to creating a new possibility of what it is to be human is made available. The purpose of this book is to show how communication of the unspoken realm of language—speaking being—is actually accomplished in The Forum, and to demonstrate how Erhard did it in 1989. Through placing Erhard’s language use next to Heidegger’s thinking—presented in a series of “Sidebars” and “Intervals” alongside The Forum transcript—the authors have made two contributions. They have illuminated the work of two thinkers, who independently developed similar forms of ontological rhetoric while working from very different times and places. Hyde and Kopp have also for the first time made Erhard’s extraordinary form of ontological rhetoric available for a wide range of audiences, from scholars at work within a variety of academic disciplines to anyone interested in exploring the possibility of being for human beings. Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 5 Copyright......Page 6 Contents......Page 9 About the Authors......Page 11 Introduction......Page 15 Evolution......Page 16 Technology......Page 17 The Plan of the Book......Page 18 Acknowledgments......Page 19 Day One: Session One......Page 21 Talking about Being......Page 22 Dasein......Page 26 Two Theses......Page 28 Ontological Dialogue......Page 30 Being-in-the-World: Being-in......Page 34 Mood......Page 38 Session One Interval: Hints: Ontological Distinctions......Page 46 Day One: Session Two......Page 48 Philosophy as Rhetorical Evocation......Page 49 Getting It and Losing It......Page 58 Authenticity......Page 68 Session Two Interval: Dasein: Meaning and Mineness......Page 72 Day One: Session Three......Page 74 Session Three Interval: Yankelovich Study Results......Page 76 Day One: Session Four......Page 82 Concern......Page 87 Already Always Listening......Page 89 Session Four Interval: Jargon......Page 92 Day One: Session Five......Page 94 End of Day One Interval: Reflexion: The Cartesian Deficiency......Page 100 Day Two: Session One......Page 103 Being-in-the-World: Being-With......Page 106 Giving and Reflexion......Page 117 The They-Self......Page 121 Session One Interval: Hermeneutic Phenomenology......Page 130 Day Two: Session Two......Page 134 Thinking......Page 135 Heidegger’s Pedagogy......Page 141 Solicitude of a Forum Leader......Page 146 Session Two Interval: The Forgetting of Being, Part One of Eight: Getting and Losing......Page 150 Day Two: Session Three......Page 152 Social Moods......Page 170 Thrownness......Page 173 Day Two: Session Four......Page 180 End of Day Two Interval: The Forgetting of Being, Part Two of Eight: Questioning......Page 182 Day Three: Session One......Page 185 In-Order-To......Page 186 Awakening Attunements......Page 199 Session One Interval: The Forgetting of Being, Part Three of Eight: Heidegger’s Etymologies......Page 210 Day Three: Session Two......Page 212 Danger: Attunements and Moods......Page 214 Session Two Interval: The Forgetting of Being, Part Four of Eight: The Pre-Socratics......Page 222 Day Three: Session Three......Page 226 Choice......Page 231 The Violence of Meaning......Page 240 The Same......Page 251 God......Page 273 Session Three Interval: The Forgetting of Being, Part Five of Eight: Physis......Page 278 Day Three: Session Four......Page 282 Waiting for the Leap......Page 298 A Violent Way......Page 306 End of Day Three Interval: The Forgetting of Being, Part Six of Eight: Saying Nothing......Page 322 Day Four: Session One......Page 325 Being-in-the-World: World......Page 326 The Uncanny......Page 333 The Call of Conscience......Page 346 What is Said When Conscience Calls?......Page 356 Nothing: Beyond Nihilism......Page 372 Session One Interval: The Forgetting of Being, Part Seven of Eight: Logos......Page 386 Day Four: Session Two......Page 390 The Three Levels of Truth......Page 391 Primordial Metaphor: Clearing......Page 411 The Drift......Page 423 “Way of Being” and the “Nature of Being for Human Beings”......Page 432 Session Two Interval: The Forgetting of Being, Part Eight of Eight: The Heart of the Matter......Page 462 Day Four: Session Three......Page 464 A Substance Ontology......Page 486 Event Ontology......Page 493 Technology......Page 498 Techne......Page 506 Enframing......Page 513 The Oblivion of Oblivion......Page 524 Transformation as Technology......Page 533 End of Day Four Interval Conclusion: Technology of Transformation......Page 544 Afterword by Michael E. Zimmerman......Page 546 References......Page 557 Index......Page 561 EULA......Page 579