TWENTIETH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY: Intellectual Heroes and Key Themes

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TWENTIETH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY Intellectual
Heroes and Key Themes

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LECTURES

1. The limits of language.
2. Death and authenticity.
3. The great community.
4. Making differences.
5. Social hope.
6. Communicative rationality.

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DEATH AND AUTHENTICITY
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• 1. THE HORIZON OF THE BLACK FOREST
• What is thinking?
• 2. BEING-TOWARD-DEATH
• How to conceive of human existence?
• 3. ART AND TECHNOLOGY
• What obstructs ascertaining the truth?

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1. THE HORIZON OF THE BLACK FOREST
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MARTIN HEIDEGGER

• BIOGRAPHICAL DATA
• 1889 born September 26, in Meßkirch (Germany).
• 1909-1911 Studies theology in Freiburg.
• 1911-1913 Studies Philosophy, humanities and
  natural sciences in Freiburg.
• 1913 Graduated with a dissertation on judgement
  in psychologism.
• 1915 Habilitation thesis on Duns Scotus.
• 1922 Professor at the University of Marburg.
• 1928 Professor at the University of Freiburg.
• 1933-1934 Rector of the University of Freiburg.
• 1946-1949 Prohibition to teach because of his
  engagement with the Nazi-regime.
• 1951-1967 Honorary Professor.
• 1976 Died May 26, in Freiburg.

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MAJOR WORKS

• Sein und Zeit (1927).
• Was ist Metaphysik? (1929).
• Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis)
  (1936-1938).
• Vom Wesen der Wahrheit (1943).
• Über den Humanismus (1949).
• Holzwege (1950).
• Vorträge und Aufsätze (1954).
• Was heißt Denken (1954).
• Identität und Differenz (1957).
• Unterwegs zur Sprache (1959).
• Nietzsche I/II (1961).
• Wegmarken (1967).
• Zur Sache des Denkens (1969).

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THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE

• Heidegger was a child of his age.
• The spirit of the age in which he grew up as a
  philosopher was very much influenced by
• 1. Neo-Kantianism (Rickert, Hartmann).
• 2. Phenomenology (Husserl).
• 3. Hermeneutics (Dilthey).
• 4. Philosophy of the will (Nietzsche).
• 5. Philosophy of life (Bergson).

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ON THE ROAD

• The road (question) is more interesting than its
  end (answer).
• Some titels of his work indicate that Holzwege
  , Der Feldweg, Unterwegs zur Sprache and
  Wegmarken.
• Philosophers are often triggered to think when
  they get off the track.
• This is the way to broaden ones horizon.

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THINKING

• Heidegger argues in his essay Was heißt denken?
  that his way of thinking is different from that
  of a scientist, because it cannot be utilized
  immediately.
• Thinking implies giving the object that is
  thought about its dignity (back).
• While one is thinking the being gets its language
  (Im Denken kommt das Sein zur Sprache).
• However, the language of metaphysics conceals the
  being and should therefore be criticized.
• In his essay Über den Humanismus (1949)
  Heidegger tries to get beyond a technical
  interpretation of thinking gt to think implies to
  leave the being as it is (Sie läßt das Sein
  sein.

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THE END OF PHILOSOPHY

• In a lecture Heidegger proclaims The end of
  philosophy gt philosophy doesnt cease to exist,
  but will have a new task.
• Metaphysics always in search of foundations
  ceases to exist, because of the emergence of
  scientific thought, i.e. an instrumental way of
  thinking.
• Philosophy should give expression to the
  clearance (Lichtung) of being.
• Its focus is the truth in the sense of aletheia,
  i.e. unconcealedness or unhiddenness
  (Unverborgenheit).
• Philosophy as the criticism of metaphysics and a
  new way of thinking.

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STYLE OF PHILOSOPHY

• One will find some aspects of Heideggers style
  of philosophy in his early work as well as in his
  later work.
• Four aspects are significant
• 1. Everyday life and its language are the point
  of departures for his philosophy.
• 2. The texts are rather hermetic.
• 3. The use of a lot of neologisms.
• 4. To make great play of the original meanings
  of words.
• A discontinuity in style gt the later work is more
  evocative (influenced by poetry).

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HEURISTIC VALUE

• Existentialism (Jean-Paul Sartre amongst others).
• Post-Structuralism (Michel Foucault amongst
  others).
• Deconstructivism (Jacques Derrida amongst
  others).
• Hermeneutics (Hans-Georg Gadamer amongst others).
• Neo-Marxism (Herbert Marcuse amongst others ).
• Theology (Rudolf Boltmann amongst others).
• Literary Criticism (Paul de Man amongst others).
• Psychiatry (Ludwig Binswanger amongst others).
• Literature (Botho Strauß amongst others).

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2. BEING-TOWARD-DEATH
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TIME

• Ludwig Wittgenstein questions in his
  Philosophical Investigations the meaning of
  concepts like time, and argues that people know
  it when no one asks them, but no longer know it
  when they are supposed to give an account of it.
• Augustine says in the Confessions "quid est ergo
  tempus? si nemo ex me quaerat scio si quaerenti
  explicare velim, nescio".This could not be said
  about a question of natural science ("What is the
  specific gravity of hydrogen?" for instance).
  Something that we know when no one asks us, but
  no longer know when we are supposed to give an
  account of it, is something that we need to
  remind ourselves of. (PI 89)
• What is self-evident is not often questioned.
• Heidegger argues that the meaning of being (Sinn
  des Seins) is not seriously questioned since the
  ancient Greeks.
• Central question of Sein und Zeit what is the
  meaning of being?
• Answer Time as the possible horizon for any
  understanding whatsoever of being.
• Always when we use the word Being we are
  involved in a temporal determination.

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RECLAIMING THE QUESTION OF BEING

• Heidegger is concerned with the meaning of being
  as such, rather than with the meaning of a
  specific being.
• He wants to know what being is and not what the
  sense is of whats it all about (for instance
  figuring out why there is something rather than
  nothing).
• Within philosophy the question of being has come
  to be forgotten.
• There are three reasons for this forgetfulness
  of being (Seinsvergessenheit)
• 1. Being is the most general concept of all
  concepts.
• 2. Therefore it is indefinable.
• 3. It is a self-evident concept.
• Thus to retrieve the question of being means
  first of all to work out adequately the
  formulation of the question.

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ONTOLOGICAL DIFFERENCE

• Heidegger speaks of the ontological difference
  when he distinguishes entities (Seiendes) from
  being (Sein).
• Entities gt anything that in any sense is.
• Question what is it for something to be?
• So the being of entities is not itself an entity!
• Being gt that what determines entities as
  entities.
• Heidegger distinguishes three elements when he
  discusses the question of being
• 1. Being.
• 2. Da-sein
• 3. The meaning of being.
• These elements are the starting point of
  Heideggers questioning.

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QUESTIONING

• In regard to any question Heidegger makes a
  distinction between
• 1. What is asked about (das Gefragte) gt being on
  the basis of which entities are understood.
• 2. What is questioned (das Befragte) gt Da-sein.
• 3. Which is to be ascertained by the asking
  (das Erfragte) gt the meaning of being that
  should be articulated with concepts that are
  different form those used to describe entities.
• Project of Sein und Zeit gt in order to get
  access to 1 and answer 3 one has to scrutinize
  Da-sein gt This being which we ourselves in
  each case are and which includes inquiry among
  the possibilities of its being.

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FUNDAMENTAL ONTOLOGY

• The aim of Heidegger is to revitalise ontology.
• Ontology gt the study of being.
• Ontical gt (empirical) enquiry that is concerned
  with entities (das Seiende).
• Ontological gt (a priori) enquiry that is
  concerned with the being of entities (das Sein).
• Fundamental ontology gt the study of being as
  such.
• In Heideggers case fundamental ontology is
  primarely the analysis of Da-sein.

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BEING-THERE

• With the concept Dasein Heidegger wants to draw
  the attention on both the human being and being
  human.
• Da-sein gt being-there.
• The there (Da) of being-there refers to the
  disclosedness of Dasein to the Dasein.
• Dasein it ontically nearest to itself and
  ontologically farthest away.
• Dasein is distinguished from other entities,
  because it includes an understanding of being.
• The meaning of the being that being we call
  Dasein proves to be temporality Zeitlichkeit.

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EXISTENCE

• In order to distinguish Da-sein as a mode of
  being from other modes of being Heidegger
  introduces the concept existence.
• Existence gt the being of the entity called
  Da-sein.
• Heidegger is interested in the basic structures
  of Dasein gt existentials.
• A basic existental is being-in-the-world
  (in-der-Welt-sein) gt an engaged
  having-to-with-things.
• Heidegger tries to figure out what
  being-in-the-world means via the phenomenological
  method.

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THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL METHOD

• Heideggers enquiry is based upon the
  phenomenological method of Husserl.
• The maxim of this method To the things
  themselves.
• The concept of phenomenon gt that what shows
  itself in itself.
• The concept of logos gt the discourse that makes
  manifest what one is talking about in ones
  discourse.
• Phenomenology gt to let what shows itself be
  seen from itself, just as it shows itself from
  itself.
• Whereas for Husserl the object of
  phenomenological research is consciousness, for
  Heidegger it is being.
• Phenomenological description gt hermeneutics, i.e.
  the art of interpretation.

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GRASPING AND DETERMINING DA-SEIN AS A WHOLE

• Is the whole of Dasein accessible at all in its
  being?
• The impossibility of experiencing Dasein
  ontically as an existing whole.
• The death of other persons doesnt give us access
  to the wholeness of Dasein.
• Death gt the lost of the being of the there.
• It makes an end to any interpretation and
  articulation.

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OUTSTANDING, ENDING AND TOTALITY

• Heidegger presents three theses
• 1. As long as Da-sein is, a not-yet belongs to
  it, something that is constantly outstanding.
• 2. The coming-to-its-end of what is
  not-yet-at-an-end has the character of
  no-longer-being-there.
• 3. Coming-to-an-end implies a mode of being in
  which the actual Da-sein absolutely cannot be
  represented by someone else.
• The theses correspond to outstanding, ending and
  totality.
• The ending that we have in view when we speak of
  death, does not signify a being-at-an-end of
  Da-sein, but rather a being toward the end of
  this being. Death is a way to be that Dasein
  takes over as soon as it is.

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BEING-TOWARD-DEATH AND THE EVERDAYNESS OF DA-SEIN

• Death reveals Dasein as a field of possibilities
  that can be realized.
• With death, Da-sein stands before itself in its
  own most potentiality-of-being. In this
  possibility, Da-sein is concerned about its
  being-in-the world absolutely.
• The Dasein is thrown into this possibility.
• This thrownness (Geworfenheit) reveals itself via
  anxieties.
• The idle talk (das Gerede) in everyday life
  doesnt reveal what being-toward-death means.
• In the everyday life we try to get rid of the
  death.
• We need a courageous attitude towards death.

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THE THEORETICAL PRACTICE OF DEATH

• A concentration on specific moods and states of
  mind, like anxiety, clarifies the existential
  structure of Dasein.
• Being-toward-death gt with death, Da-sein stands
  before itself in its own most potentiality-of-bein
  g.
• This possibility shows that Da-sein is concerned
  about its being-in-the-world.
• The Dasein is thrown into this possibility.

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TO EXIST INAUTHETNICALLY

• Dasein is always ahead of itself (sich voraus)
  gt projects itself onto possibilities of
  existence.
• Authenticity is to be oneself, i.e. to choose
  consciously for certain possibilities of
  existence.
• To exist inauthentically gt the possibilities of
  existence are determined by the One or They (das
  Man).
• For instance, people think, feel, do and judge as
  one has to think, feel, do and judge or they are
  thinking, feeling, doing and judging.
• Heidegger states that conscience is the call to
  authenticity.
• Conscience gives us something to understand, it
  discloses.
• Authenticity implies a specific mode of
  comportment towards death.

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3. ART AND TECHNOLOGY
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DISCONTINUITIES

• Concerning the work of Heidegger scholars often
  refer to discontinuities (Kehre) in content and
  style.
• Till 1935 analysis of Dasein.
• After 1935 analysis of being via an analysis
  of the presocratic philosophers, Nietzsche and
  literature.
• Till 1935 more or less a classical
  philosophical style mixed with an analysis of
  everyday experiences.
• After 1935 evocative style with an analysis of
  literature and technology.

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NEW PATHS

• Truth is not a question of the logos, i.e. making
  a judgment, but a question of being.
• Aletheia gt that what is not hidden.
• This concept refers to two things
• 1. The being shows itself.
• 2. Activity of the human being gt
  deconstruction of the way we think.
• After the deconstruction its easier for the being
  to show itself.

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FORGETFULNESS OF BEING

• The whole history of philosophy hides the being gt
  forgetfulness of being.
• Therefore philosophers have to deconstruct this
  history.
• Philosophy is in need of a new kind of language.
• Someone like Hölderlin provides such a language.

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THE TRUTH OF ART

• In his famous essay Der Ursprung des Kunstwerks
  (1935/36) Heidegger emphasizes the truth-function
  of art gt The nature of art would then be this
  the truth of beings setting itself to work
• Good art is responsible for the disclosure of the
  world (Welterschließung).
• When Heidegger reflects on art he criticizes the
  instrumental reason that dominates modern
  culture.
• Technology embodies instrumental reason.
• Art can transcend instrumental reason, because it
  opens up and sets up a world.
• The world of science and technology is already
  opened.

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SHOWING THE TRUTH

• What kind of thing is a work of art?
• Aesthetics perceives them mainly as specific
  things.
• Heidegger doesnt deny that art works are things,
  but argues that the focus should be on their
  disclosure of the world.
• Art works present the occurrence of the truth
  (ein Geschehen der Wahrheit am Werk) as this
  painting of Van Gogh show gt they tell the truth
  about the life of peasants.

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BEYOND THE SUBJECT-OBJECT MODEL

• Philosophy is preoccupied with control.
• The reason is the subject-object model of
  philosophy.
• Metaphysics has a theological element
  ontotheology.
• The technological age is also preoccupied by this
  metaphysical way of thinking.
• The correct attitude Gelassenheit (stay cool) gt
  accept to a certain extent your fate.

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RECOMMENDED

• 1. Martin Heidegger, Sein und Zeit translations
  in several languages.
• 2. Martin Heidegger, Die Wahrheit und die Kunst
  translations in several languages.
• 3. Rüdiger Safranski, Ein Meister aus
  Deutschland. Heidegger und seine Zeit
  translations in several languages.