enowning
Monday, November 17, 2008
 
The table, that special object, in the summer semester 1923 course.
The purest everydayness can be called on: tarrying for a while at home, being-in-a-room, where eventually "a table" is encountered! As what is it being encountered? A thing In space—as a spatial thing, it is also a material thing. It has such and such a weight, such and such a color, such and such a shape, with a rectangular or round top—so high, so wide, with a smooth or rough surface. The thing can be dismantled, burned, or dissolved in some other way. This material thing in space which offers itself to possible sensation from different directions always shows itself as being-there only from a certain side and indeed in such a way that the aspect seen from one side flows over in a continuous manner into other aspects sketched out in advance in the spatial gestalt of the thing, and the same holds for these ones. Aspects show themselves and open up in ever new ways as we walk around the thing-and still others when we look down on it from above or perceive it from below. The aspects themselves change according to lighting, distance, and similar factors bound up with the position of the perceiver.

The being-there-in-such-a-manner of this thing which is given in the flesh provides the possibility of determining something about the meaning of the being of such objects and their being-real In the proper sense, such objects are stones and other slmilar things in nature. However, when seen more closely, the table is also something more - it is not only a material thing in space, but in addition is furnished with definite valuative predicates: beautifully made, useful - it is a piece of equipment, furniture, a part of the room's decor. The total domain of what is real can accordingly be divided into two realms: things in nature and things of value - and the latter always contaln the being of a natural thing as the basic stratum of their being. The authentic being of the table is: material
thing in space.

P. 68
More on that table from the same lecture here.
 
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