WISDOM
Wisdom is here theorized and perhaps even spoken as an exercise in rhetorical hermeneutics, that is as a way of understanding through speaking, or more particularly, a certain sort of saying. What sort of saying is the saying of Wisdom?
Wisdom is a saying of care, the sort of care that Heidegger calls Fuersorge, on p.122 of Sein und Zeit. It is "authentic care" by Dasein as a Being-with. As a Being-with Dasein has the capacity for Fuersorge as an authentic care for the other that pertains to the existence of the other in its ownmost potentiality for being. Through this authentic caring for the Other,the Dasein of the Other is "freed" to become its ownmost potentiality for being. Thus as Being-with Dasein's possibility for authenticity is inextricably bound up with the Other as a Dasein with a similar capacity. This shared capacity for authenticity is the central "Sache" ( matter of concern) that each Dasein potentially has with a "partner." The partners are "taken hold of" by this commonly held concern for authenticity and the possibility for realizing it , each with the other. Heidegger on the bottom of 122:
". . . "When they devote themselves to the same affair in common, their doing so is determined by the manner in which their Dasein, each in its own way, has been taken hold of. They thus become authentically bound together and this makes possible the right kind of objectivity ( die rechte Sachlichkeit), which frees the Other in his freedom for himself.. . . Thus as Being-with, dasein 'is' essentially for the sake of Others."
That is, for the sake of the Dasein of Others: The Love that Socrates loved for the sake of the soul of Phaedrus. Heidegger's Fuersorge=Plato's Noble Love. Eros in the service of Sophia. Philosophia can only be said by Dasein as authentic Being-with. In the passionate objectivity of such saying, the discourse is propelled by the being- ahead -of -itself of the Other's ownmost potentiality for Being. Heidegger on 122 again:
". . .There is also the possibility of a kind of Fuersorge which does not so much leap in for the Other as a leap ahead of him (ihm vorausspringt) in his existentiell potentiality-for-Being, not in order to take away his "care' but rather to give it back to him authentically as such for the first time."
This sense of "giving it back to him authentically as such for the first time" has all the earmarks of a "hermeneutical experience" as theorized by Gadamer. Gadamer theorizes the hermeneutical experience as a "conversation" in which the participants don't so much conduct a conversation, but rather are conducted by the [the Sache of] the conversation, and in which the Sache is the "object" of the conversation, not the other person.
Invocation to Wisdom-Speak
by Clement of Alexandria, cf Deuteronomy 6:1ff., Heidegger, p.1 of SS
1924):
"It is a good thing, I reckon, to leave to posterity good children. This is the case with Children of our bodies. But words are the progeny of the soul. Hence we call those who have instructed us, fathers. Wisdom is a communicative and philanthropic thing. Accordingly, Solomon says, ' My son, if you receive the saying of my commandment, and hide it with you, your ear shall hear wisdom.' He points out that the word that is sown is hidden in the soul of the learner, as in the earth, and this is spiritual planting, 'And you shall apply your heart to understanding, and apply it for the admonition of your son.' For I think that soul joined with soul, and spirit with spirit, in the sowing of the word, will make that which is sown grow and germinate."
Wisdom is a saying in search of itself, searching for a saying that will be Wisdom.
Hence Wisdom is a Discourse that Aspires to Wisdom.
The Invocation positions the Sayer to perhaps realize the aspiration in the saying.
The Other is there to be addressed, the one to whom the saying is said, the one to be instructed.
For Wisdom is Instruction, and must be addressed by the Master to a Disciple.
And so in order to be understood, Wisdom must be read rhetorically, that is "as addressed"( Kenneth Burke) to the Reader who positions herself as disciple, the one to whom the saying is said in order that she might understand.
But the Sayer of Wisdom is also saying a Saying which Aspires to Wisdom in order himself to understand.
This shared inquiry through the saying and hearing of Wisdom is theorized by Heidegger as the Authentic Discourse of Care ( that is Fuersorge, that is Care which leaps ahead of the Other in her quest for authentic existence ( SuZ122).
Here as everywhere Dasein is itself for the sake of the Other.
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As Rhetorical Hermeneutic the Saying of Wisdom can only be understood "as addressed." To understand rhetorically-hermeneutically is to understand saying-as-addressed.
As Rhetorical Hermeneutic, Wisdom is a discourse in the process of becoming a discourse in the course of its very saying.
Wisdom is a discourse which finds its end in saying and hearing.
Like hermeneuitics, Wisdom is a discourse in search of a place, a site, a
text wherein it might be enlightened.
As Rhetorical HJermeneutic, Wisdom can be heard as On the Way to Language, in search of Language Speaking.
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