Symposium
Details
Reflections on Borderlines and Separation Walls with a consideration of the Dimensions of common Sense and Transcendence
In the public lecture, Edward S. Casey will address the
question of the effective reality of international borders
with particular reference to the U.S.-Mexico border, often
referred to as “La Frontera.” Special attention will be paid
to the specificities of the massive wall that has been built
to demarcate and to protect this border. To analyze the
circumstance more adequately, Professor Casey will make
use of a basic distinction between “border” and “boundary,”
which enables us to gain a fresh understanding of the
dynamics now occurring at La Frontera. The paradoxes of
being an invisible but fateful borderline will be investigated.
The entire situation will also be discussed from the standpoint
of transcendence and common sense – terms that
have an unusual ability to illuminate this complex situation
more adequately. Audience discussion and participation will
be encouraged.
On the following day we will discuss at length Casey´s
book “The Fate of Place - A Philosophical History.” In this
book he shows that place, which is a basic concept of
“Heimat,” long reigned as the supreme term in Western
thought. In the modern age the natural scientific method
relegates places to mere positions in space. However, the
starting point of interpreting the world is not abstract
space but “our own lived body.” In structure and function,
our body is oriented, and so are all perception and consciousness.
“We are never anywhere, anywhen, but in
place.” One might say that the meeting point of the anthropological
relations of place, time, and community
(Gemeinschaft) could be called “Heimat.” Heimat always
has boundaries which one has to transcend but no borders.
While boundaries invite being transcended, and in
this way open Heimat, the closure by borders would
destroy it.
