In a message dated 4/7/09 2:06:38 PM, [email protected] writes:
> Am I right in thinking that Heidegger picked the easiest example of > making > art out of something, when he decided to discuss "equipment" and that he > would have found it much more difficult to make his exposition with other > categories? > Yes, Mam -- you're right. Back on 3/26 I made a parallel objection: "We don't want thinkers setting up straw men, but also don't want them to set up golden men -- that is, choose only useful examples and ignore obvious counter-examples. Here below is an outline of H's initial example of a "work of art" -- Van Gogh's painting of the peasant's shoes. Besides asking if he is convincing about that work, ask how any of it would be useful in thinking about a Mozart concerto or a Conger painting. Search for the "equipmental character of equipment". 1. Consider a painting of a pair of peasant shoes by Van Gogh. 2. Equipmental character consists in its usefulness. Thus, we must consider the shoes as they are used, not in some abstract or formal sense. [33] 3. The equipmental being of equipment is reliability. [34] 4. This is discovered by an imaginative engagement with Van Gogh's painting of a pair of shoes. In other words, the work of art allowed us to understand "what shoes are in truth". 4 [36] 5. Thus, the work of art has allowed the entity to emerge "into the unconcea Search for the "equipmental character of equipment". 1. Consider a painting of a pair of peasant shoes by Van Gogh. 2. Equipmental character consists in its usefulness. Thus, we must consider the shoes as they are used, not in some abstract or formal sense. [33] 3. The equipmental being of equipment is reliability. [34] 4. This is discovered by an imaginative engagement with Van Gogh's painting of a pair of shoes. In other words, the work of art allowed us to understand "what shoes are in truth". 4 [36] 5. Thus, the work of art has allowed the entity to emerge "into the unconcealedness [or "truth"] of its being." ike the "thingliness of things", Heidegger's notion of the "equipmental being of equipment" is his way of talking about the "real nature" of equipment, its essence, what makes it equipment. 4 Notice how, in the description of the peasant shoes, Heidegger includes a reference to the earth to which the shoes belong, and the world of the peasant woman in which they are "protected". This distinction will play a central role in Heidegger's discussion of art. ************** Worried about job security? Check out the 5 safest jobs in a recession. (http://jobs.aol.com/gallery/growing-job-industries?ncid=emlcntuscare00000003 )
