Heidegger's Fountain Pens

[zuhandensein]

I have found a pretty decent picture of Heidegger's desk. To my surprise, it seems he was a big fan of Pentel Sign Pens. I'd say that he has a Pelikan on the table, but I fail to recognise the main fountain pen that is shown in the picture. I am sure that some of you can identify it.

 

The second picture is somehow less clear, but I'd say that's a Pelikan... I am not sure, anyway.

 

I read somewhere that he used a Kaweco (Heidelberg brand, so local pen to Heidegger...). But to my knowledge there is no sign of a Kaweco in these two pictures.

 

[risingsun]

I would agree the second picture looks a lot like a Pelikan 400, just stuck in a pen stand. Can't help much on any of the others...

[AndrewThomas]

The other question, of course, is whether those pens are present-at-hand or ready-to-hand.

[Polanova]

The pen in the first pic is the Meisterstück version of the Montblanc 24.

(and the other one a Pelikan 400 indeed)

Edited December 5, 2014 by Polanova

[zuhandensein]

Thanks all! Very useful information! After a quick search on Google I was wondering if the Montblanc can also be the 12 or the 121... I am not familiar with Montblanc pens, so I cannot say too much about the differences... I will keep on searching later...

 

The other question, of course, is whether those pens are present-at-hand or ready-to-hand.

 

Certainly! IMHO both pens are ready-to-hand. And probably the Pentel Sign Pens as well. I cannot believe he has 4 or 5, if not 6 on his desk. In case they are dry they are probably just present-at-hand

[Namo]

The other question, of course, is whether those pens are present-at-hand or ready-to-hand.

Or if you realize how much you miss it when it's not here.

[HandLikeAFist]

An unrepentant Nazi had pens on his desk - the point being?

[zuhandensein]

An unrepentant Nazi had pens on his desk - the point being?

 

 

 

That's a good point, no doubt. I have committed many mistakes in life for which just saying "sorry" or "I was wrong" would have been certainly the easiest solution, but probably not the best one. In my opinion people usually go to fast saying "sorry", "i love you" etc. in a way that these expressions cannot convey the meaning that they are supposed to convey. But, anyway, I am not excusing Heidegger, I am just saying why I can enjoy reading (or trying to read) Heidegger...

 

...and also because wrote about the meaning or the way we approach to things in the world, how we give meaning to them and how we build spaces that are meaningful and human... Fountain pens are objects that cannot be considered simply 'tools'... I think Heidegger is one of the most interesting philosophers trying to grasp the deep existential implications that has the fact that we humans use tools that have meaning beyond their most immediate use.

 

"In accordance with their character of being usable material, useful things always are in terms oftheir belonging to other useful things: writ­ing materials, pen, ink, paper, desk blotter, table, lamp, furniture, win­ dows, doors, room. These "things" never show themselves initially by themselves, in order then to fill out a room as a sum of real things. What we encounter as nearest to us, although we do not grasp it the­ matically, is the room, not as what is "between the four walls" in a geometrical, spatial sense, but rather as material for living." (Being and Time, p. 64, Stambaugh translation, State University of New York Press, 1996)

Edited December 6, 2014 by zuhandensein

[Barnaby Bumble]

He needed lots of Sign Pens to do all that signifying he did. The penning of the pen, and whatnot. Or I guess that would be bestiften?

Edited December 6, 2014 by Barnaby Bumble

[Bo Bo Olson]

Went looking for the word....Pelagianism, in I had a full physiological rant going. Was jumping all over St. Augustine and the City of God and his mother, when I didn't push the right button. I like jumping on that jerk.

 

....Philosophy started with Desmond Morris...in all before thought man was a rational being, not a half smart smelly ape ruled by his nose; rationalizing his mistakes with out the slightest idea or acknowledgment all man is, is an animal that thinks he can think every century or two.

Which is actually a look at the present society of his era, by a man who was not smart enough to be an engineer in the era he finds himself in. Like Plato.

 

The rational being is coming...who is going to write the philosophy for an intelligent computer.

 

Read Desmond Morris's stroke of Genius 'The Naked Ape' first. He was a zoologist at the London zoo who decided to look at man as an animal he'd never seen before. What he saw shocked the world....he saw man.

Earlobes are there to be nibbled on in foreplay ....plus much more.

 

The First Philosophy book written by anyone with an idea of what was really going on was Desmond Morris's 'The Human Zoo', a very, very pessimistic book.

When I was 13, I read Plato, and looked around, said, after 3,000 years still nothing.Stuck my nose in philosophy books occasionally there after...still nothing. Mammon was still god, man still worshiped power. Can't help it, high Status spreads the genes.

 

I think being a Stoic makes sense, of trying to change and better only your self, in the world can not be changed.

The stoic's didn't know why. Morris shows why...we are animals first, last and always, with animals limits.

 

Since Morris & Berne (The games People Play) there had been great leaps forward of knowledge of the basic understanding of man; gestures & body language. The study of the function of the brain has reached astounding heights since the CAT machine. Still philosophy does not nor ever will work. All 'The Human Zoo' shows you what you see; is what is and won't change.

 

Stick 100 six foot blond men on an Island, and it will soon divide up into 70-30, in number 3 wants to be number 1...even if a smaller power group. Number 2 there beats being number 8 in the original group.

 

You do know if you studied Ethics in collage and they find out about it, you will not be hired in many of the higher money making branches. All one needs is a good lawyer, before, during and after the fact.

Children must have their myths and fairytales.

 

Be wary of the sober cynic.

Edited December 6, 2014 by Bo Bo Olson

[playtime]

- the point being?

 

"Being" precisely the point.

 

On a more serious note, perhaps a witty aside is more malapropos given Heidegger's unapologetic stance. Yet his works are too significant to ignore.....

[Barnaby Bumble]

 

"Being" precisely the point.

 

It's about time somebody said that.

[ink-syringe]

 

It's about time somebody said that.

 

haha

[Bo Bo Olson]

Heidelberg was once the fountain pen capitol of the the World.

 

Heidelberg pen companies off the top of my head; Kaweco, Osmia, the Original Reform, Luxor, Herlitz, Artus, Lamy, Mercedes, Mulchner(sp) 2-3rd tier pens only.

 

The original owner of Reform, would never made the 1745. He shut down his factory rather than make second class pens to compete against the ball point. His quality was so good, the companies he exported to before the war sent him cash advances so he could go out and buy supplies right after the war. Top of the Line pen. Later sold to Mulchner.

[Barnaby Bumble]

 

haha

[AndrewThomas]

What I like about the picture is how many pens he's got. Looks like 6 or 8. It's funny how we (or at least I) sometimes assume that having multiple fountain pens is the sign of a collector. It's interesting to think that Mr. Heidegger also had numerous and also had to decide, like I, what to write with on a given day.

[SaintLoup]

 

"Being" precisely the point.

 

On a more serious note, perhaps a witty aside is more malapropos given Heidegger's unapologetic stance. Yet his works are too significant to ignore.....

 

I dont know about that! After banging my head against Being & Time for a few months it was actually an honest to god relief to turn to Austin and find him cracking wise about grammar. Perhaps I have bad associations because it was on Heidegger's account that an acquaintance of mine came out with the statement: "Logic doesn't apply to me."

[playtime]

 

I dont know about that! After banging my head against Being & Time for a few months it was actually an honest to god relief to turn to Austin and find him cracking wise about grammar. Perhaps I have bad associations because it was on Heidegger's account that an acquaintance of mine came out with the statement: "Logic doesn't apply to me."

No doubt his prose can be impenetrable, and his neologisms enigmatic - Austin in turn is a welcome astringent. Yet Heidegger's notion of Being-in-the-world, the workshop framework involved in such a notion, how objects are encountered as ready-at-hand before a breakdown permits an object to be encountered as presence-at-hand, how the notion of Being-in-the-world itself dissolves (at least in the eyes of Heidegger) Cartesian dualism and the skepticism that it entails, how moods and care light up the world for Da-Sein, how his later works gave rise to Existentialism (to which I do NOT subscribe!); how Heidegger radicalizes knowledge - his significance cannot be ignored.

 

Admittedly I am more a fan of Wittgenstein, Quine, Davidson, Kripke, David Lewis, and Australian philosophy - but (irrespective of his Nazi sympathies as terrible and deplorable as they are) Heidegger's influence at least in my eyes is undeniable......

Edited January 22, 2015 by playtime

[orfew]

The first pen in the stand certainly looks like a Montblanc Meisterstuck 14. I have had one of these, a very nice pen. It also has lots of thingyness.

[SaintLoup]

No doubt his prose can be impenetrable, and his neologisms enigmatic - Austin in turn is a welcome astringent. Yet Heidegger's notion of Being-in-the-world, the workshop framework involved in such a notion, how objects are encountered as ready-at-hand before a breakdown permits an object to be encountered as presence-at-hand, how the notion of Being-in-the-world itself dissolves (at least in the eyes of Heidegger) Cartesian dualism and the skepticism that it entails, how moods and care light up the world for Da-Sein, how his later works gave rise to Existentialism (to which I do NOT subscribe!); how Heidegger radicalizes knowledge - his significance cannot be ignored.

 

Admittedly I am more a fan of Wittgenstein, Quine, Davidson, Kripke, David Lewis, and Australian philosophy - but (irrespective of his Nazi sympathies as terrible and deplorable as they are) Heidegger's influence at least in my eyes is undeniable......

 

Thank you for your wonderful reply! (This is all going to be a little effusive so please forgive me.) Reading an essay by Charles Taylor was the closest I ever got to understanding Heidegger. I've heard he can be better in German, though that is not something I feel comfortable attempting. My sense of his work seemed to be that he was finding ways to attack myths of immediacy that had become (and perhaps still are) philosophical dogma. What ultimately prejudiced me against him--maybe continental philosophy generally--was that many people in my undergraduate life seemed to take cues from Heidegger, Derrida, etc. to use impenetrable prose to avoid having a point.

 

I'm reading Kripke's on Wittgenstein now, and enjoying it very much. I like Quine a lot (though behaviorism leaves me cold). Otherwise, I am sadly ignorant of much of your list. I find myself reading Diamond, Castaneda, and Perry a fair amount. I just finished an anthology called The New Wittgenstein, in which Diamond and Cavell, another favorite, are featured prominently. Alice Crary, one of the editors, is also great.

 

At the moment I am on tenterhooks to hear back from grad schools. I guess that you either work in, or study philosophy. Any advice, help, or conversation you might have I would love.

 

Best.

Edited January 22, 2015 by SaintLoup