Divine and mortal motivation: On the movement of life in Aristotle and Heidegger

Abstract

The paper discusses Heidegger's early notion of the "movedness of life" (Lebensbewegtheit) and its intimate connection with Aristotle's concept of movement (kinēsis). Heidegger's aim in the period of Being and Time was to "overcome" the Greek ideal of being as ousiaconstant and complete presence and availabilityby showing that the background for all meaningful presence is Dasein, the ecstatically temporal context of human being. Life as the event of finitude is characterized by an essential lack and incompleteness, and the living present therefore gains meaning only in relation to a horizon of un-presence and unavailability. Whereas the "theological" culmination of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics finds the supreme fulfillment of human life in the semi-divine self-immanence and self-sufficiency of the bios theōrētikos, a radical Heideggerian interpretation of kinēsis may permit us to find in Aristotle the fundamental structures of mortal living as self-transcendent movement.

Bildung, Meditation and Safe Haven

“…3 Meditation has been additionally defined as the continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep nature; -the habit of meditation is the basis for all real knowledge,‖ 4 reflection, thought, concentration, study, musing, pondering, contemplation, reverie, ruminating, rumination, and cogitation. 5 Within the work of Aristotle we see links between meditation and ‗bios theoretikos', whichdescribed the thinking life as a life whereby action became balanced by contemplative thoughtin light of the argument and correction of one's own self-interested view of life (Backman, 2006).…”

Heidegger on the History of Machination

“…Out of the commanding of all beings to stand as reserves for the arbitrary means of the will, beings become equally subjected under the growing power of the will. 41 Under the machination, the "will to power" turns into technological "will to will": "will wills" itself forevermore and hence is directed towards the strengthening and overpowering of its own power. Power, then, is not centred on subject, but better, power positions subjects to will, value, and command beings within the structure of continual return and increase of the selfsame, the will to will more of the power of willing.…”

The issue of life: Aristotle in nursing perspective

“…The philosopher Jussi Backman, following Heidegger, states that the horizon for Aristotle's analysis of movement is his understanding of life (Heidegger, 1976; Backman, 2006). It seems that life to Aristotle is the paradigm of the cyclical coming‐to‐be and passing‐away of substance which ‘never disappears from nature’ ( GC 318a10).…”

“…Aristotle's term for change in general is metabole ( Physica 225a1–3). Heidegger interprets the term as implying a transition or turn, in which something that has been hidden and absent emerges (von Weizsäcker, 1971; Heidegger, 1976; Gadamer, 1983; Backman, 2006). We recognize it in the term metabolism for our regenerating of life from air, food and water.…”

“…His ‘biology’ was for centuries regarded as scientifically obsolete, but today Aristotelian perspectives are explicit part of the philosophy of biology (Moya, 2000; Moss, 2004; Vinci & Robert, 2005; Penzlin, 2009). The Aristotelian tradition is distinguished in Western thought by the ontological importance it places on life as process and becoming (Gadamer, 1983; Moya, 2000; Backman, 2006). His dynamism in our view makes Aristotle particularly relevant for nursing.…”