Attacks by Al-Qaeda Deputy Leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri can only help Obama politically.

Let's face it, the one thing those who either love or loathe Osama bin Laden share in common is the intractable belief that there is only one absolutely unimpeachable narrative about the other.

And [sigh] all too often they possess authortarian personalities and are staunchly convinced the only way to move forward is by embracing their own rendition of The Way.

I think if I could sit down with Osama bin Laden and explain to him why he thinks he is who he thinks he is is merely a manifestation of what Heidegger called "dasein" he might learn just enough to deconstruct himself.

On the other hand, Martin Heidegger took to defending the path Hitler's dasein chose; so there are no guarentees.

But you'd be surprised at just how few people there are who really understand the fortuitous manner in which they become who they think they are.

And how, in one circumstanial landslide, that can all change.

george walton

Sorry, iambiguous, you are not ambiguous, you are deluded.

"I think if I could sit down with Osama bin Laden and explain to him why he thinks he is who he thinks he is is merely a manifestation of what Heidegger called "dasein" he might learn just enough to deconstruct himself."

I think you better stay home, you may keep your head a bit longer that way.

On the other hand, you probably lost you mind already.

btw: fyi, Hiedeggerain daseiin and Adorno's authoritarian personality don't meld very easily.

On the other hand, Heidegger  had an authoritarian personality too.

I recommend you read The Jargon of Authenticity. It's all about Dasein.

btw: Iambiguous,

Your idea of converting Bin Laden reminds me of Ramon Llull's efforts.  

Jackson writes:

Sorry, iambiguous, you are not ambiguous, you are deluded.

"I think if I could sit down with Osama bin Laden and explain to him why he thinks he is who he thinks he is is merely a manifestation of what Heidegger called "dasein" he might learn just enough to deconstruct himself."

I think you better stay home, you may keep your head a bit longer that way.

On the other hand, you probably lost you mind already.

btw: fyi, Hiedeggerain daseiin and Adorno's authoritarian personality don't meld very easily.

On the other hand, Heidegger had an authoritarian personality too.

I recommend you read The Jargon of Authenticity. It's all about Dasein.

George:

Deluded? Gosh, that sounds an awful lot like an ad hominem, to me. And, as Hillary Clinton once put it, "that hurts my feelings".

He said, ironically.

But, okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt this time.

So, what in your view is the difference between first person omniscient [authoritarian] personalities except the jargon they use to propose and to propagate The Way?

Their own, more likely than not.

But let's probe "dasein" more fully.

Please tell me how you understand this existential construct as it relates to actual human social, political and economic interaction. What does it mean to have an "identity"? How do factors like contingency, chance and change come into play as you grow older? What was Heidegger's point with respect to being "thrown" at birth into an adventitious cultural and historical stew? How do being and nothingness [living and dying] intertwine for "I" in a world without God?  What are the epistemological parameters respecting what we either can or cannot know about "self"?

george

iambiguous, I ma not interested in your simple minded philosophizing.

Did you have trouble getting a teaching job? Is that why you are trying to play philosophy teacher here?

Jackson writes:

iambiguous, I ma not interested in your simple minded philosophizing.

Did you have trouble getting a teaching job? Is that why you are trying to play philosophy teacher here?

George:

In the political philosophy rooms I hang out in that sort of reaction is a dead giveaway that someone knows he is in way over his head.

If, on the other hand, you think it might be the other way around, why not show everyone in the here just how simple-minded my philosophy is.

Let's discuss the relationship between Adorno's conjectures regarding the multi-level self and the manner in which it conflates and/or conflicts with Heidegger's approach to subjectivity.

But not up in the stratosphere of abstraction, okay?.

Let's steer this inherently problematic philosophical exchange down closer to the ground. Let's explore the manner in which Osama bin Laden and Barack Obama approach religion from both a transcendental and a pragmatic vantage point.

Then we can embed these more instantiated speculations in a hypothetical thought experiment by imagaining Obama's reaction to Ayman Al-Zawahiri's take on his election victory and how that might play out down the road in Iraq.

george walton