PPM22 is one of those meditations that really stands out. Something new appears, and that happens after I jam on the reciprocity of 'gifts' that is the relationship of Being and learning. The gift of learning happens when the news is conveyed by philosophers, which, as I noted in the past few commentaries, is anyone who makes something evocative, something that turns us toward thinking, and, thereby, towards Being's presencing/excess. Artists, musicians, writers, etc., can all be philosophers when their making is directive, when they 'stuff' they make (paintings, sculptures, music, essays) in different and unique ways express the sign that points us to human freedom; all such works express human potency; all such work says 'Si, se puede.' In pointing us towards human freedom, such work conveys the Teaching of Being, which is introduced as a trope for the first time in PPM22. "The call to 'let learn' is the gift of Teaching," I wrote. But receiving this gift happens in the reciprocity of giving, in giving the gift of teachability, in saying, through our openness, our readiness to learn. "Learning is a gift to Teaching...We offer the gift of teachability and from this arises the relationship of Being and Learning."
February 13, 2014 was the 10th anniversary of the original experiment that produced 363 phenomenological mediations, published as 'Being and Learning' (Brill: 2012). Each day between Feb 2014-15, I returned to the original meditations, and my commentary is documented here. And then, again, on February 15, 2024, on the 20th anniversary of the first days of the original experiment, I revisit and comment on a daily basis, once again.
The call to 'let learn' is the gift of teaching!! What a coincidence that I wrote that 20 years ago today. Or perhaps there is no coincidence at all, rather, continuity, as this week I am honoring that claim by "allowing" my students to learn how to learn, by offering them the gift of encountering their natality (in the Arendtian sense), and the freedom to learn. My withdrawal from the scene, my absence from the classroom this week isby design, as I get ready to travel to Salt Lake City for PES 2024. Thus far in this 3.0 process, I am recognizing the project's continuity!
ReplyDeleteWhat resonates today loud and clear is the following fragment from the 2.0 commentary, which I recite - "The gift of learning happens when the news is conveyed by philosophers, which, as I noted in the past few commentaries, is anyone who makes something evocative, something that turns us toward thinking, and, thereby, towards Being's presencing/excess. Artists, musicians, writers, etc., can all be philosophers when their making is directive, when they 'stuff' they make (paintings, sculptures, music, essays) in different and unique ways express the sign that points us to human freedom; all such works express human potency; all such work says 'Si, se puede.'" I hadn't forgotten that 10 years ago, "Sí, se puede," was a mantra for me. I'm glad to be recollected with it today. And then, again, the project's continuity, the emphasis on the philosophical educator being "anyone" who 'makes' something evocative, which might be better stated as 'offers' anything evocative, a gift of learning. More importantly is this emphasis on artists, writers, and especially musicians! These are the philosophical educators, the ones I am calling the Cultural Educators!
Finally, last night I had the occasion to read Merleau-Ponty's "Preface" to his landmark 'Phenomenology of Perception,' and this evocative fragment jumped out and grabbed me: "The philosopher, as the unpublished works [of Husserl] declare, is a perpetual beginner, which means that he takes for granted nothing that men, learned or otherwise, believe they know. It means also that philosophy itself must not take itself for granted, in so far as it may have managed to say something true; that it is an ever-renewed experiment in making its own beginning; that it consists wholly in the description of this beginning...phenomenological reduction belongs to existential philosophy: Heidegger's 'being-in-the-world' appears only against the background of the phenomenological reduction." (p. XVI).