Peter Gratton: how would you define realism for a phenomenologist like yourself, since as you suggest Heidegger can’t discuss the “independence” of things…

Paul Ennis: I think a major problem is the temptation to fit people into neat categories. We argue endlessly as to whether Hegel is an idealist or Derrida is a realist…It can be interesting but with a thinker like Heidegger it is not a case of discovering whether he a realist or an idealist because he is simply not engaged in that kind of debate. He has a very peculiar, singular direction and it is foremost an ontological rather than an epistemological issue.

¶ 10:17 PM