Being and Time - Heidegger: Philosophy Forums

Being and Time - Heidegger
A brief question on Being and Time

Being and Time - Heidegger

igro
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Posted 11/06/09 - 05:50 PM: Subject: Being and Time - Heidegger	#1
Does "readiness to hand" reffer solely to equipment? I mean if it is equipment it has to be man-made, correct? I have been listening to the Hubert Dreyfuss lectures on the subjkect and it just seems that it would be easier to just come out and say that equipment must be 'man made'.

Cadrache
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Posted 11/06/09 - 09:06 PM:	#2
I normally prefer the mental state "readiness to hand" - or on account of limited mechanisms there are limited responses available. Knowing which ones exist allows for any continuance to any action.
"...There was a writer who asked why it was that when we find positive experiences we say that only the physical facts are real, but in negative experiences we believe that reality is subjective. He made an example of those who say that in birth only the pain is real, the joy a subjective point of view, but that in death it is the emotional loss that is the reality." - Tony Ballantyne, Recursion. _____________________________________________ Truth is want. - The internal state of matters. Truth is Need. - The external state of affairs.

makerowner
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Posted 11/07/09 - 03:31 PM:	#3
Cadrache wrote: I normally prefer the mental state "readiness to hand" - or on account of limited mechanisms there are limited responses available. Knowing which ones exist allows for any continuance to any action. Very helpful comment, and quite pertinent too. Anyways... @ the OP: No, "ready-to-hand" doesn't only refer to artifical equipment. You could say roughly that it refers to any object insofar as it fits into a human activity. I'm not sure if Heidegger only uses Zeug (equipment) for artificial things or whether natural ones could count as well. Also, have you read Being and Time? I would strongly dis-recommend listening to Dreyfus before reading Heidegger yourself. His interpretation is certainly interesting, and I found it helpful, but it gives the wrong impression of what Heidegger was trying to do. B&T is not a philosophical anthropology, and Heidegger is not a pragmatist, which is how Dreyfus interprets him. It's much better to read him yourself first, then listen to Dreyfus.
For philosophy, Socrates, if pursued in moderation and at the proper age, is an elegant accomplishment, but too much philosophy is the ruin of human life. Even if a man has good parts, still, if he carries philosophy into later life, he is necessarily ignorant of all those things which a gentleman and a person of honour ought to know.

Tobias
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Posted 11/09/09 - 04:36 AM:	#4
Anyways... @ the OP: No, "ready-to-hand" doesn't only refer to artifical equipment. You could say roughly that it refers to any object insofar as it fits into a human activity. I'm not sure if Heidegger only uses Zeug (equipment) for artificial things or whether natural ones could count as well. I think natural ones count as well. That would follow from his discussions on technik. He complains that the river Rhine is relelgated to something we can use, e.g. for tourism or electrical power. In effect, nature has become 'Zeug', just as we have become Zeug.
"The Power of Kant compels you" "The Power of Kant compels you" "The Power of Kant compels you"

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