I ran into a quote by Nietzsche in his book 'Human, All to Human' about Language.
The whole phenomenon of metaphysics is based on the use of language in a particular way. But the question is: is there anything 'older', 'further back', 'more primitive' than Language? Keep in mind that Language too is the voice of Rationality and Reason. But if we can find something 'more' or 'bigger' than Language, we might find a clue to the meaning of life.
Nietzsche says:
"The imitated gesture led the imitator back to the sensation expressed by the gesture in the body or the face of the one imitated. This is how we learned to understand one another; this is how the child still learns to understand its mother."
Think of the polarity between saying, "I am in despair.", and the 'look' of despair on a face. Doesn't the 'look' communicate something more than any description in language? Isn't this pre-rational language our original tongue?
This 'gesture' is not mediated by subject/predicate language; it's the same with music. It is pure immediacy. And music and gesture are tied to one another. For music leads to bodily movement, dance, etc . . .
In 'Thus Spake Zarathustra', Nietzsche says:
"Only in the dance do I know how to tell the parable of the highest things: and now my highest p
arable remained unspoken in my limbs."
Also,
"The self does not say, 'I', it DOES I."
The whole phenomenon of metaphysics is based on the use of language in a particular way. But the question is: is there anything 'older', 'further back', 'more primitive' than Language? Keep in mind that Language too is the voice of Rationality and Reason. But if we can find something 'more' or 'bigger' than Language, we might find a clue to the meaning of life.
Nietzsche says:"The imitated gesture led the imitator back to the sensation expressed by the gesture in the body or the face of the one imitated. This is how we learned to understand one another; this is how the child still learns to understand its mother."
Think of the polarity between saying, "I am in despair.", and the 'look' of despair on a face. Doesn't the 'look' communicate something more than any description in language? Isn't this pre-rational language our original tongue?
This 'gesture' is not mediated by subject/predicate language; it's the same with music. It is pure immediacy. And music and gesture are tied to one another. For music leads to bodily movement, dance, etc . . .
In 'Thus Spake Zarathustra', Nietzsche says:
"Only in the dance do I know how to tell the parable of the highest things: and now my highest p
arable remained unspoken in my limbs."Also,
"The self does not say, 'I', it DOES I."
No comments:
Post a Comment