[Buddha-l] Being unable to imagine dying [confused]

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Op 06-06-10 06:51, Richard Hayes schreef:
> You're a better man than I. I tried to read some Heidegger once, but I 
> couldn't make heads or tails out of what he was saying. Mind you, all 
> my philosophical training was in analytic philosophy and Indian 
> philosophy, and all the people who taught me Indian philosophy were 
> enamored of Ayer, Ryle, Russell, Quine, Strawson and Wittgenstein (The 
> Tractatus please---none of that later stuff he wrote after his brain 
> died). There are times when I have a feeling this has given me a 
> rather limited appreciation of Indian philosophy, but I quickly get 
> over those feelings and dismiss them as brief episodes of 
> unaccountable mental illness acquired perhaps from reading Republican 
> bumper stickers.
That's an eloquent way to boost about your limitations, Richard. It is 
not entirely Heidegger's fault that you didn't understand him. Others 
who had more perseverance managed to get a grip in the end. After all he 
was just another failed priest who took most of his inspiration from 
Husserl, local farmers and Meister Eckhart. The idea that Wittgenstein 
wrote his Logische Untersuchungen after his brain died opens new 
perspectives for mr. Lemma. It would mean that death merely is 
liberation from mathematical and logical oversimplifications.
I myself did read Heidegger and Husserl, and many other continentals, 
but also the writers you mention above. I had to during my study, 
because at the time you could not get away with just studying only a 
group philosophers or a movement. Later I wanted to understand what they 
were after. I must say I found it very boring most of the time, too 
simplistic.

erik