Martin Heidegger "What is Metaphysics"

Martin Heidegger is widely known as one of the most original and important philosophers of the 20th century, while remaining one of the most controversial. His thinking contributed to the development of such diverse fields as phenomenology (Merlot-Ponti), existentialism (Sartre, Ortega and Gasset), hermeneutics (Gadamer, Ricoeur), political theory (Arendt, Marcuse, Habermas), psychology (Boss, Binswanger, Rollo May) and theology (Bultmann, Raner, Tillich). He revealed the basics of non-science phenomena and described what metaphysics is. According to Heidegger, it takes a different look in space and time.

A critical component of the world philosopher

What is Heidegger metaphysics, and what is his opposition to positivism and technological world domination? They were supported by leading theorists of postmodernism (Derrida, Foucault and Lyotard). On the other hand, his participation in the Nazi movement provoked heated debate. Although he never claimed that his philosophy was related to politics, political considerations overshadowed his philosophical work:

1. Heidegger's main interest was ontology or the study of being. In his fundamental treatise, Being and Time, he tried to gain access to being (sein) through a phenomenological analysis of human existence (dasein) in relation to its temporal and historical nature.
2. After changing his thinking, Heidegger emphasized language as a means by which the question of being can be revealed.
3. He turned to the interpretation of historical texts, especially from the Dococrats, as well as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche and Gelderlin; to poetry, architecture, technology and other subjects.
4. Instead of looking for a full explanation of the meaning of being, he tried to engage in some kind of thinking in the concept of metaphysics. Heidegger criticized the tradition of Western philosophy, which he considered nihilistic.
5. He also emphasized the nihilism of modern technological culture. Turning to the pre -ocratic beginning of Western thought, he wanted to repeat the early Greek experience of being, so that the West could turn its back on the impasse of nihilism and begin again.

His writings are notoriously difficult. Being and Time remains the most influential work.

Philosophy as a phenomenological ontology

To understand what Heidegger metaphysics is before the Turn, let us first briefly review its developments with Edmund Husserl. As already mentioned, the studied scientist was interested in Husserl from his early student years at the University of Freiburg, when he read Logical Investigations. Later, when Husserl took over the chair in Freiburg, Heidegger became his assistant. His duty to Husserl cannot be ignored. Not only is Genesis and Time dedicated to Husserl, Heidegger admits in it that without Husserl's phenomenology his own research would have been impossible. How then is Heidegger's philosophy connected with the Husserlian program of phenomenology?

By phenomenology, Husserl himself always meant the science of consciousness and its objects:

1. This core of meaning permeates the development of this concept as eidetic, transcendental or constructive in all his works.
2. Following the Cartesian tradition, he saw the foundation and the absolute starting point of philosophy in this subject.
3. The procedure for bracketing is important for Husserl's “phenomenological reduction” - the methodological procedure by which we behave from the “natural attitude” in which we participate in the real world and its affairs to the “phenomenological relationship” in which analysis is possible and a separate description of the content of consciousness.

Phenomenological contraction helps us to free ourselves from prejudice and to ensure the purity of our separation as observers so that we can encounter “such as they are in ourselves”, regardless of any premises. The goal of phenomenology for Husserl is a descriptive, independent analysis of consciousness, in which objects are composed as their correlates.

What right does Husserl have to insist that the initial way of meeting with beings in which they seem to us as they are in themselves is to purify the meeting of consciousness with a phenomenological reduction and its objects?

Perhaps because of his reverence for Husserl, he does not directly criticize him in his fundamental work. Nevertheless, Being and Time is itself a powerful criticism of the Husserl phenomenon. But Martin Heidegger does not change the basic concepts of metaphysics, despite the many different "ways" in which we exist and come across things. He analyzes the structures that make up things, not only in the form in which they are found in a separate, theoretical relation to consciousness, but also in everyday life as “utensils”.

Husserl's problem: the structure of the world - a phenomenon of consciousness?

In his concept of metaphysics, Heidegger demonstrates the structures that make up the special type of being that man is. He calls it "Dasein." For Heidegger, this is not a pure consciousness in which beings were originally formed. For him, the starting point of philosophy is not consciousness, but Duseyn in his being.

The central issue for Husserl is the constitutional issue:

1. How does the world work as a phenomenon in our minds? Heidegger takes Husserl's problem one step further. Instead of asking how something should be given in consciousness in order to be composed, he asks: "What is the way of being of the being in which the world is composed?"
2. In a letter to Husserl dated October 27, 1927, he argues that the question of the existence of Dasein cannot be dismissed, since the constitutional issue is raised.
3. Dasein is the creature any creature is in. In addition, the question of the existence of Dasein directs him to the problem of being in general.

Heidegger, although not dependent on Husserl, finds in his thought an inspiration leading him to a topic that continues to attract his attention from an early age: the question of the meaning of being.

The Birth of a New Direction: Being in Heidegger's Etymology

Thus, phenomenology gets a new meaning from Heidegger. He understands this more broadly and etymologically than Husserl, as "allowing what he shows himself to see from himself, just as he shows from himself."

To summarize: Heidegger in the basic concept of metaphysics does not base his philosophy on consciousness like Husserl does. For him, the phenomenological or theoretical relation of consciousness, which Husserl forms the core of his doctrine, is only one of the possible ways of a more fundamental, namely, the existence of Dasein. Although he agrees with Husserl that the transcendental constitution of the world cannot be revealed by naturalistic or physical explanations, in his opinion, this requires not a descriptive analysis of consciousness, but analysis of Dasein.

Phenomenology for him is a descriptive, detached analysis of consciousness. This is a method of access to being. What does Heidegger metaphysics do if it comes from Dasein's analysis? This is a phenomenological ontology that differs from the interpretation of its predecessor.

Dasein and his temporality

In everyday German, the word "Dasein" means life or existence. Nouns are used by other German philosophers to denote the existence of a person. However, the scientist under study breaks it into components of “yes” and “sein” and gives it special significance. Which is associated with the answer to the question of who such a person is and what metaphysics according to Heidegger does.

He connects this issue with the question of being. Dasein is what we ourselves are, but differs from all other beings in that it creates the problem of its own being. It stands out for being. Like Da-sein, this is the place, “Da” for revealing the essence of “Sein”:

1. Heidegger's fundamental analysis of Dasein from Being and Time points to temporality as the original meaning of Dasein's being. It is essentially temporary.
2. Its temporary nature stems from a tripartite ontological structure: existence, dregs and falls, which describe the existence of Dasein.

Existence means that Dasein is a potential existence. Heidegger projects the basic concepts of metaphysics as a phenomenon of the future. Then, like a cast, Duseyn always finds himself already in a certain spiritual and material, historically conditioned environment; in a world in which the space of possibilities is always somehow limited:

1. A meeting with these creatures, “to be near” or “to be with them,” became possible for Dasein due to the presence of these creatures in this world. This represents the original phenomenon of the present.
2. Accordingly, Dasein is not temporary for the simple reason that it exists “in time”, but because its very being is rooted in temporality: the original unity of the future, past and present.
3. Time cannot be equated with ordinary watches - simply being at one moment in time, at one “now” after another, which for Martin Heidegger is a metaphysician is a derivative phenomenon.
4. Dasein’s temporality also does not have a purely quantitative, homogeneous character of the concept of time found in natural science. This is a phenomenon of the primordial time, which “temporalizes” itself during the existence of Dasein. This movement around the world as a space of opportunities.

The "return" to the possibilities that were (in the past) at the time of rejection, and their projection in the decisive movement, "approaching" (to the future) at the moment of existence, is a true temporality.

The search for the meaning of being

What is Heidegger metaphysics, and what is the meaning of the world? He describes his thoughts in academic terms:

1. The first of them dates back to his studies in high school, during which he read the book by Franz Brentano, "The Diversity of the Meaning of Being in Aristotle."
2. In 1907, a seventeen-year-old Heidegger asked: "If what is is determined by multiple meanings, then what is its main fundamental meaning? What does it mean to be?"
3. The question of being, which remained unanswered at that time, became the leading question of "Being and Time" twenty years later.

Considering the long history of the meaning attributed to being, Heidegger in the foundations of metaphysics notes that in philosophical tradition it was generally assumed that being is at the same time the most universal concept. Uncertain from the point of view of other concepts and self-evident. This is a concept that is mostly taken for granted. However, the scientist under study claims that although we understand being, its meaning is still hidden in the dark.

Therefore, we need to reformulate the question of the meaning of being and ask ourselves the problem of metaphysics. Heidegger and Kant in their work are very close thoughts, but the only difference is that the first interprets life for granted, but from two sides. The second says that the creature does not have an internal "I" and an external "meaning of life and destiny."

In accordance with the method of philosophy, which metaphysics according to M. Heidegger does, which he uses in his fundamental treatise, before trying to give an answer to the question of being as a whole, one needs to answer the question of the existence of a special kind of entity, which is a person - Dasein .

Philosophy of existence and death

Vivid phenomenological descriptions of the existence of Dasein in the world, especially everyday life and decisiveness in relation to death, attracted many readers with interests related to existential philosophy, theology and literature.

Basic concepts, such as temporality, understanding, historicity, repeatability, and genuine or unreliable existence, were carried over and explored in more detail in Heidegger's later works on overcoming metaphysics. However, from the point of view of the search for the meaning of being, "Being and Time" were unsuccessful and remained unfinished.

As Heidegger himself admitted in his essay “Letter on Humanism” (1946), the third division of its first part, entitled “Time and Being,” was postponed “because thinking did not correspond to adequate statements about the turn and was not successful using the language of metaphysics ". The second part also remained unwritten:

1. The “turn” that takes place in the 1930s is a change in Heidegger's thinking.
2. The consequence of the “turn” is not the rejection of the main question of “Being and Time”.
3. Heidegger emphasizes the continuity of his thoughts in the course of change. However, since “everything is upside down,” even the question of the meaning of Genesis is reformulated in a later work.

This becomes a matter of openness, that is, truth, being. In addition, since the openness of being refers to the situation in history, the history of being becomes the most important concept in late Heidegger.

Who are you inside yourself: why do we live?

For a reader unfamiliar with Heidegger's thought, both the “question about the meaning of being” and the expression “history of being” sound strange:

1. Firstly, such a reader can argue: when they talk about him, something is not expressed that worldly "being" could correctly denote. Consequently, the word "being" is a meaningless term, and metaphysics according to Martin Heidegger about the search for the meaning of being is generally a misunderstanding.
2. Secondly, the reader may also think that the being of the scientist being studied most likely has no history than the being of Aristotle, therefore the “history of being” is also a misunderstanding.
3. Nevertheless, his task is precisely to show briefly the basic concepts of metaphysics. Heidegger deduces a meaningful concept of being: "We understand what" is ", we use in conversation," he argues, "although we do not understand this conceptually."

Therefore, the studied scientist asks:

Can one then think of existence? We can think of creatures: a table, my table, a pencil with which I write, a school building, a strong storm in the mountains ... but to be?

The "ontological difference", the difference between being (das Seinde) and beings (das Seiende) is fundamental to Heidegger. In a lecture on metaphysics, he talks about oblivion, deception, and confusion. Forgetting what, according to him, happens in the course of Western philosophy, comes down to forgetting this difference.

How to avoid metaphysics and hide from it? Overcoming Being

In short, Heidegger metaphysics is a mistake of “Western philosophy”. In his opinion, oblivion of being takes place in it. Therefore, it is synonymous with the "tradition of metaphysics." Metaphysics asks about the essence of creatures, but in such a way that the question of existence as such is ignored. Being itself is destroyed.

Thus, Heidegger's "history of being" can be regarded as the history of metaphysics, which is the history of oblivion of being. (Quite confusing, but if you look deeply, it’s very interesting.) However, if you look at the other side of what metaphysics according to M. Heidegger is, the following will become clear:

1. It is also a way of thinking that looks beyond the limits of creatures into their foundation.
2. Each metaphysics is aimed at an absolute foundation. And the land of such metaphysics is indisputable.
3. For example, Descartes’s absolute foundation is achieved with the argument “Cogito”.
4. Cartesian metaphysics is characterized by subjectivity, because it is based on a self-confident subject.
5. In addition, metaphysics is not just a philosophy that raises the question of the essence of creatures. In the present century, when philosophy breaks down into specific sciences, they still talk about the existence of what is in general.

, , , , , . , entia creatum ( ) ens perfectissimum ( ).

Today, the discipline is this: if we say what metaphysics is according to Heidegger, a brief summary of ideology comes down to the modernity of technology, thanks to which a modern person asserts himself in the world, working on himself in various forms of creation and formation. Technology forms and controls the position of man in the modern world. He rules beings and dominates in different ways:

1. In contrast to mastery of beings, the thinking of thinkers is the thinking of being.
2. Heidegger believes that ancient Greek thinking is not yet a metaphysics.
3. Presocratic thinkers ask a question about the essence of creatures, but in such a way that being itself is revealed. They perceive the being as a representation (Anwesen) of what is present (Anwesende).
4. To be as a representation means to remain in invisibility, disclosure.

In his later works, the philosopher replaces the meaning of concepts with synonyms by introducing them into metaphysics. Heidegger describes the experience with the Greek words phusis (dominant position) and alêtheia (secrecy). He is trying to show that the early Greeks did not objectify creatures (they did not try to reduce them to an object for a thinking subject), but they allowed them to be what they were, like a manifestation of oneself turning into non-cover.

They experienced the phenomenality of what is present, its radiant dedication. The departure of the Western philosophical tradition from the concern for what is present in the view from this unique experience that struck the Greeks had profound theoretical and practical consequences.

What is, what is present, undisguised, is "that which appears from itself, in the phenomenon manifests itself in these manifestations of self-expression." This is an “emerging occurrence, a revealing that is delayed."

From philosophy to political theory

Heidegger never claimed that his philosophy was related to politics. Nevertheless, there are certain political consequences of his thoughts. He perceives the metaphysical culture of the West as continuity. It begins with Plato and ends with modernity and the rule of science and technology. Thus, in a postmodern manner, he implies that Nazism and the atomic bomb, Auschwitz and Hiroshima were a kind of “fulfillment” of the tradition of Western metaphysics and were trying to distance themselves from it.

He turns to the Presocracy to restore the subject-physical way of thinking, which would serve as a starting point for a new beginning. Nonetheless, his great vision of the essential history of the West and Western nihilism can be called into question. Modernity, the development of which includes not only a technological, but also a social revolution, which frees people from religious and ethnic communities, from parishes and family ties, and which affirms materialistic values, can be considered as a radical departure from earlier classical and Christian traditions , contrary to Heidegger's argument:

1. Christianity challenges the classical world, assimilating some of its aspects, and, in turn, is questioned by modernity.
2. Modernity turns the ideas and values ​​of the traditional (Christian and classical) culture of the West and, as soon as it becomes global, leads to the erosion of non-Western traditional cultures.
3. Under the cover of enormous speculative depth and a rich ontological vocabulary, filled with an intricate play on words (both of which make his works extremely difficult to understand), Heidegger expresses a simple political vision.

He is a revolutionary thinker who denies the traditional philosophical separation between theory and practice. This is especially clear when he boldly declares in his Introduction to Metaphysics that:

We have taken on the great and lengthy task of destroying a world that is old, and we need to build it truly anew.

He wants to turn the traditional culture of the West and rebuild it on the basis of earlier traditions in the name of being. Like other thinkers of our time, he adheres to the Eurocentric point of view and considers the revival of German society as a condition for the revival of Europe (or the West), and Europe as a condition for the revival of the whole world.

In the end, in a famous interview with Der Spiegel, he expresses disappointment with his project and says:

Philosophy cannot lead to a direct change in the current state of the world. The greatness of what you need to think about is too great.

As a creature, which he describes as “revealing himself to be concealing,” after revealing he is removed; after fomenting a revolution, leaves all its problems to others, erases the basic concepts of metaphysics. M. Heidegger says: "Only God can still save us." But God, whom he now looks at in the absence of philosophical thought, is clearly not a Christian or a representative of "any" modern religion ..