Ok, lets say I see the cover of a book. ’ Being and Nothingness’ , and am tortured by an evil genius to interpret the book by the cover title.
Now if I didn’t know how Sartre connects with Descartes, I am forced to interpret the Cogito Ergo Sum to Being and Nothingness, in their most reduced manner, that is nominally.
Do knowledge and existence relatable in some way to Being and Nothingness on this level, even if using the most approximate translation to Greek? Of course they can, but how reliable so such become? One needs to read volumes before such relationships become truly understandable. Then the questions relating to how ideas develop can clarify differing meanings in that sense.
Could such an attempt be made without regard to the span of two thousand years, and what would such mean in terms of compatible understanding? Was it attempted by Plato or Aristotle or any of the other thinkers?
Now I would, without further ado answer in the positive, and this is exactly what Nietzsche waa trying to do. I admit I’ve only read him part and parcel, but I believe his intended method consisted of getting this across.
What your take is on meaning can only be unearthed if and only if, it is an intentional attempt to seek look beneath the cover, hiding a depth which can only reflect whomever is inquiring.
But then, some think the same of a summary, a forward , or an epilogue.
Many writers do not put them in the right order, without actually correlating them in order, to let each suppose , that a defiance of sequence will enable the other to travel through time, as of it was reversible.
And in a few cases they can, and bring faith to the idea of the immortality of a work, and the author.
Don’t fear, this is not tantamount with bargaining or dealing with Faust, to restrain himself.
The whole reason for this demonstration can be spelled out from Sartre’s ‘self thought man’ from his tremendous novel ‘Nausea’, and which I am only citing because of some criticism I received from a past ILP member St.James, who wondered my reductive style (.reversely)
To my mind , immortal works will, of approached with total faith , reveal themselves whichever way.
That is why between covers there lies substantial somethingness to cover the nothingness of an abyss, which will reveal much more then the mere reflection of whomever appears to look into IT.
And again, since words can so totally mirror an opposite effect, that this illustration tries to prove the transcendence of an idea of ever which way a narrative is constructed.