Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells. Those who think and those who create with words are the guardians of this home." - Martin Heidegger, Letter on Humanism, 1947.
Language is the house of Being. Being is contradiction, or perhaps rather contradiction is the house of Being. Language then, and contradiction then, and now we begin to wonder. What is the connection between language and contradiction? Is it the simple representation of the "real" (real in quotes because I do not think in dualities, thus practically eliminating the need for this sentence, but I will continue) world versus the world of ideas? Is language a contradiction? Or is it that contradiction cannot arise without language? But I feel that I'm getting ahead of myself in this wordvom.
Language and Being. Dasein cannot be without language.
Contradiction and Being. Dasein is the contradiction, the creator of contradiction, and created by contradiction. Is that too contradictory for you?
Well then, language cannot be without Being.
What am I getting at? Where does this circular go-nowhere infinite road lead? There is no destination, no point of arrival, just as there was no place that we embarked from, although we did start off somewhere and the goal is to land somewhere else. Is it a truth that I'm after? Yes and No. Perhaps it's a belief, or a faith.
And one wonders about faith. Is it not contradiction? To expect something when I have no reason to expect it. What then is contradiction? Is it the absurd? That from which faith rises from? Is it absurd that we separate light from dark, up from down, the individual from society? I think always of contradictions as poles, as opposites, as separated by a nothingness, and Being is that which fills the nothingness and brings them back together. But it is absurd to think of one without the other, to think of loneliness without the idea of, and separated from, togetherness. I cannot be alone if I cannot be together with Others. So these two ideas are not distinct, existing without the other. Perhaps Being is that which does not join contradictory concepts, but instead is that which pushes them away. Perhaps Being creates the nothingness of a non-separation separation.
Nothingness would not exist without Being to posit it. Something would not exist without Being to posit it as against The Nothing. Both something and nothing would be the same if it were not for the intrusion of Dasein. Something and Nothing would be the same, would be meaningless, would be unthinkable. Meaning does not only have the connotation of defining, but it also has an indescribable function. Meaning is almost appearing. Meaning is almost weight. Meaning is a condensation of the fog that surrounds all. Meaning is poetry.
Where have I taken myself? Where have I gotten to? I don't know. These are just thought experiments on nothing and something being and contradiction language and meaning and nothing else. This is not a science experiment, a paper to be graded, a report to be filed. These are fundamental questions that no one thinks as they drive their car from home to work and never realize that they are always in the same place. What is geography to Dasein? What is location? What is a point on a map to Being that lives in language? Can I ever leave my home? Can I ever exist without contradiction. In death, I suppose, I pull the door closed behind me and become one thing. Or do I?
In death I leave the house I've lived in, no longer able to talk, no longer able to posit differences with my mouth, to form words. But does that mean that my Dasein ceases to exist? Do I become Negative, a negative existence, a not-Being? Or do I wholly join the life that is around me, do I close the contradiction, the gap that I've created, and become something and nothing at the same time? Do I fall or do I ascend? Do I dissipate or become whole, a wholeness that I can never feel now?
Only time will tell. That I can be sure of. But time has it's own problems to deal with. The linear succession of nows verses the non linear conglomeration of yesterday today and tomorrow. This is a thought trail for another day. This is another path to the clearing. This is a shady dirt trail in summer breezes with green leaves for friends.
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