Re: Nietzsche -obscurantism?
John T. Duryea (jtduryea@dmv.com)
Fri, 23 May 1997 20:25:58 -0700
henry sholar wrote:
>
> Leonardo Raggo:
> >> [VE Bowdren] supposes some sort of superficial clarity that lays down a
> kind of logical rule for fishing out "mistakes"; as far as Nietzsche is
> concerned it's much more about what's beneath this surface in a
> psychological sense, what remains in the "unconscious". To fish out these
> deeper assumptions no mere critic is of much use; one must plunge.
> ...___...___...
> The question is whether it isn't more philosophically astute to struggle with
> interpretation, to teach the real art of attention to details, than it is
> polemicize in the name of clarity that perpetuates its own kind of
> obscurantism through a defensive screen that justifies its non-reading of
> this or that philosopher deemed obscure. Not too clever and not too
> philosophical but all too easy.<<
>
> Thank you, Leonardo,
>
> For an interesting "take" under the surface, especially with regard to
> anglo-american analytic philosophy- since john searle seems to be
> our happy-go-lucky example of pristine clarity contra nietz- one
> might want to check out
>
> "Time in the Ditch: American Philosophy and the McCarthy Era"
> by John McCumber
> @ http://calliope.jhu.edu/journals/diacritics/v026/26.1mccumber.html
>
> yep, that's diacritics vol 26 #1 (1996)
>
> McCumber offers an interesting account, a political geneological
> survey of the sway of analytic philosophy. It seems to me that one
> needs only a beginner's set of nietzschean tools to diagnose the diseases
> of "clarity" spawned in that era.
>
> kindest regards,
> hen
>
> --- from list nietzsche@jefferson.village.virginia.edu ---
Interesting link hen. But I wonder, where did McCarthy get the rap
of anti-semitism in view of his chief counsel and other committee
staff members? On the surface, McCarthy appears to have been
an anti-communist backlash (Stalin had just enslaved half of Europe
and if not for American military might in 1948 would have most
likely enslaved the rest, remember too Stalin's purpose in signing
the non-agression pact with Hitler), but I think below the surface
it was a "purge" of sorts against the Stalinists to smooth the
way for the ascendency of "isms" that are all part and parcel of
"Rationalism" in different guises.
John T. Duryea
--- from list nietzsche@jefferson.village.virginia.edu ---