The Logic and Metaphysics Workshop will meet on May 10th from 4:15-6:15 (NY time) via Zoom for a talk by Filippo Casati (Lehigh).

Title: Heidegger on the Limits and Possibilities of Human Thinking

Abstract: In my talk, I will address what Heidegger calls ‘the basic problem’ of his philosophy, that is, the alleged incompatibility between the notion of Being, our thinking, and logic. First of all, I will discuss some of the ways in which Heideggerians have dealt with this incompatibility by distinguishing what I call the irrationalist and rationalist interpretation. Secondly, I will argue that these two interpretations face both exegetical and philosophical problems. To conclude, I will defend an alternative way to address the incompatibility between the notion of Being, our thinking, and logic. I will argue that, in some of his late works, Heidegger seems to suggest that the real problem lies in the philosophical illusion that we can actually assess the limits of our thinking and, therewith, our logic. Heidegger’s philosophy, I deem, wants to free us from such a philosophical illusion by delivering an experience which reminds us that our thinking is something we can never ‘look at from above’ in order to either grasp its limits or realize that it has no limits whatsoever.

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