In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

444 FRAMES
Epistemological Losses and Ontological Compensations
Heidegger's main concern in writing Sein und Zeit was, I believe, to
preserve those functions which the classic subject-object distinction had
fulfilled in Western philosophy-and to achieve this in full awareness of
an epistemological environment that excluded the possibility of seriously
opting for the subject-object paradigm. [see Uncertainty vs. Reality] The
key element of this paradigm, an element that we normally take for
granted in our everyday behavior, is the conviction that if a subject
occupies an external, distanced, "eccentric" position, this will enhance
the validity of all of the subject's observations and judgments concerning
the world of objects. It used to be the function of this presupposition
(and hence the function of the subject-object paradigm) to dignify certain
observations as "definitive," "substantive," or "objective" so that they
could become unquestionable ground for decisions, actions, and attributions
of value.
As one of several departures from the subject-object paradigm that
have occurred in European philosophy since the late nineteenth century,
Husserl's phenomenology began by problematizing the "natural attitude
of the mind" (naturliche Geisteshaltung) inherent in the subject-object
paradigm-by which Husserl meant the mutually eccentric position attributed
in the epistemological tradition to "outside objects" and to
"human consciousness" as they interrelate.32 Having engaged, from
1918 on, in an intense exchange of ideas with Husserl and having even
taught introductory courses in phenomenological philosophy on a regular
basis,33 Heidegger had played, both intellectually and institutionally,
an active (though limited) role in the breaking away from the subjectobject
paradigm. At least until the publication of Sein und Zeit, it was
mainly this role which determined his identity as a philosopher in the
academic world.34 But the loss of an eccentric-or transcendental-position
guaranteeing the "objectivity" of any observation was not limited
to philosophy. The plot structures of successful novels such as Agatha
Christie's Murder of Roger Ackroyd or Arthur Schnitzler's Traumnovelle
(Dream Story), and of Alfred Hitchcock's film The Lodger, were all based
on the impression that there no longer existed any outside position from
which reality could be objectively observed, judged, and mastered. [see
Uncertainty vs. Reality] This change triggered a series of conceptual and
epistemological substitutions; furthermore, it intensified a collective de-