Musiikki ahdistuksen taitona : Filosofinen tutkimus musiikin eksistentiaalis-ontologisesta merkityksestä

Music as the Art of Anxiety: A Philosophical Approach to the Existential-Ontological Meaning of Music. The present research studies music as an art of anxiety from the points of view of both Martin Heidegger s thought and phenomenological philosophy in general. In the Heideggerian perspective, anxiety is understood as a fundamental mode of being (Grundbefindlichkeit) in human existence. Taken as an existential-ontological concept, anxiety is conceived philosophically and not psychologically. The central research questions are: what is the relationship between music and existential-ontological anxiety? In what way can music be considered as an art of anxiety? In thinking of music as a channel and manifestation of anxiety, what makes it a special case? What are the possible applications of phenomenology and Heideggerian thought in musicology? The main aim of the research is to develop a theory of music as an art of existential-ontological anxiety and to apply this theory to musicologically relevant phenomena. Furthermore, the research will contribute to contemporary musicological debates and research as it aims to outline the phenomenological study of music as a field of its own; the development of a specific methodology is implicit in these aims. The main subject of the study, a theory of music as an art of anxiety, integrates Heideggerian and phenomenological philosophies with critical and cultural theories concerning violence, social sacrifice, and mimetic desire (René Girard), music, noise and society (Jacques Attali), and the affect-based charme of music (Vladimir Jankélévitch). Thus, in addition to the subjective mood (Stimmung) of emptiness and meaninglessness, the philosophical concept of anxiety also refers to a state of disorder and chaos in general; for instance, to noise in the realm of sound and total (social) violence at the level of society. In this study, music is approached as conveying the existentially crucial human compulsion for signifying i.e., organizing chaos. In music, this happens primarily at the immediate level of experience, i.e. in affectivity, and also in relation to all of the aforementioned dimensions (sound, society, consciousness, and so on). Thus, music s existential-ontological meaning in human existence, Dasein, is in its ability to reveal different orders of existence as such. Indeed, this makes music the art of anxiety: more precisely, music can be existentially significant at the level of moods. The study proceeds from outlining the relevance of phenomenology and Heidegger s philosophy in musicology to the philosophical development of a theory of music as the art of anxiety. The theory is developed further through the study of three selected specific musical phenomena: the concept of a musical work, guitar smashing in the performance tradition of rock music, and Erik Bergman s orchestral work Colori ed improvvisazioni. The first example illustrates the level of individual human-subject in music as the art of anxiety, as a means of signifying chaos, while the second example focuses on the collective need to socio-culturally channel violence. The third example, being music-analytical, studies contemporary music s ability to mirror the structures of anxiety at the level of a specific musical text. The selected examples illustrate that, in addition to the philosophical orientation, the research also contributes to music analysis, popular music studies, and the cultural-critical study of music. Key words: music, anxiety, phenomenology, Martin Heidegger, ontology, guitar smashing, Erik Bergman, musical work, affectivity, Stimmung, René Girard

Heidegger ja logos : Oleminen ja aika inhimillisen järjellisyyden uudelleentulkintana

Käsilläolevan tutkielman kohteena on Martin Heideggerin (1889–1976) tulkintatyö, jonka hän varhaisessa ajattelussaan (1919–1927) kohdisti kreikkalaisen filosofian keskeiseen käsitteeseen logos: ”järki”, ”puhekyky”. Tutkielman tavoitteena on selvittää, miten Heidegger tulkitsi tätä käsitettä ja mikä merkitys Heideggerin tulkintatyöllä oli hänen pääteoksensa Sein und Zeit (1927, suom. Oleminen ja aika) kannalta. Työn keskeinen näkemys on, että Heideggerin ajattelu on nähtävä kreikkalaisen järjellisyyskäsityksen kriittisenä arviointina ja uudelleentulkintana. Heideggerin filosofia pohjautui vahvasti näkemykselle, jonka mukaan ajattelumme on hyvin perustavassa mielessä kiinni perinteessä ja sen välittämissä käsityksissä ja tulkinnoissa. Heideggerin mukaan filosofinen tutkimus ei voi koskaan täysin ennakkoluulotonta ja tämän vuoksi kaiken ajattelun on päästävä selville oman tilanteensa historiallisuudesta ja satunnaisuudesta; tieteellinen filosofia ei voi valita systemaattisen ja historiallisen lähestymistavan välillä, vaan sen on oltava olemuksellisesti molempia. Vuosina 1919–1929 Heideggerin historiallisen tulkintatyön ensisijaisena kohteena oli kreikkalainen filosofia, erityisesti Aristoteleen ajattelu. Heideggerin mukaan Aristoteles ei ollut ensimmäinen filosofista ajattelua harjoittanut henkilö, mutta Heidegger näki Aristoteleen tuotannon tiivistävän yhteen länsimaisen ajattelun keskeisimmät ennakkokäsitykset. Tutkielmassa seurataan Heideggerin pyrkimystä tulkita inhimillisen järjellisyyden ilmiötä, jonka juuret Heidegger paikansi Aristoteleen ihmismääritelmään zōon logon ekhon (”järjellinen eläin”). Aristotelesta seurannut skolastinen filosofia omaksui tämän määritelmän muodossa animal rationale, mutta Heidegger painotti, että tällä käännöksellä oli taipumus sivuuttaa se perusta, joka oli vielä ominainen kreikkalaiselle järjen käsitteelle. Sillä Aristoteleelle ja kreikkalaiselle ajattelulle logos ei merkinnyt ainoastaan haluihin ja tunteisiin rinnastuvaa mielen sisäistä kykyä vaan ennen kaikkea yhteisöllisesti jaettua tulkintaa ympäröivästä todellisuudesta. Tämä tulkinta ilmenee jokapäiväisesti keskustelun ja kommunikaation yhteydessä, mutta se on myös olennainen osa tapaamme jäsentää ympäröivää todellisuutta merkitykselliseksi. Heidegger kuitenkin argumentoi, että kreikkalainen ajattelu näki tämän kielellis-diskursiivisen käsittämisen alisteisena inhimillisen kokemuksen perustaville tavoille olla suhteessa todellisuuteen: puhtaalle aistihavainnolle (aisthēsis) sekä intuitiiviselle tajuamiselle (noein). Tutkielma koostuu neljästä luvusta sekä lyhyestä johdannosta. Ensimmäinen luku käsittelee Heideggerin filosofian kantavaa teemaa, kysymystä olemisen mielestä – sekä tämän kysymyksen perustaa kreikkalaisessa ajattelussa. Tämän jälkeen luodaan katsaus Heideggerin fenomenologiseen metodiin, sen ensisijaiseen kohdealueeseen inhimillisessä kokemuksessa sekä fenomenologisen tutkimuksen historialliseen ulottuvuuteen. Toisessa luvussa esitetään puolestaan Heideggerin tulkinta käsitteestä logos. Tulkinnan ymmärtämiseksi on välttämätöntä esittää tiivistetysti Heideggerin tulkinta kreikkalaisesta totuuden käsitteestä. Heideggerin mukaan kreikkalainen ajattelu ymmärsi totuuden monitasoisena ilmiönä, jonka perustavin käyttöyhteys on löydettävissä todellisuuden ilmiöstä. Kolmannessa luvussa pureudutaan niihin piirteisiin, joiden valossa Aristoteles Heideggerin mukaan tulkitsi kielen ja kokemuksen välistä suhdetta. Neljännessä luvussa esitetään, mitä edellä esitetyt oivallukset merkitsivät Heideggerin oman filosofisen projektin kannalta, erityisesti inhimillistä olemassaoloa (Dasein) selvittäneen fundamentaaliontologian kannalta.

Kotitaloustaidon ulottuvuuksia : Analyysi kotitaloustaidosta eksistentialistis-hermeneuttisen fenomenologian valossa

DOMESTIC SKILLS AS THE ART OF EVERYDAY LIFE. An inquiry about domestic skills as a way of being-in-the-world in the light of existentialist-hermeneutics phenomenology. This study focuses on analyzing domestic skills in a phenomenological manner. The description phenomenological emerges from the interpretation process, which originates from the ontological question of domestic skills. The ontological question of how domestic skills are directs one s phenomenological gaze to the experiencing of domestic skills, rather than merely viewing their action or technical aspects. Along with the ontological question, the axiological question of what the meaning of domestic skills is drives the analysis. This study is both theoretical and philosophical. Phenomenology is the guiding philosophy, theory and methodology of the inquiry. Existentialist-hermeneutics is the emphasis which most appropriately describes the phenomenological attitude adopted within the analysis. Martin Heidegger s philosophy of being and Maurice Merleau-Ponty s philosophy of the lived body essentially form the theoretical base for the inquiry. The analysis reveals domestic skills within a core of Care and the Other. Care and the Other are anchored both in Heidegger s analysis of Dasein and in Merleau-Ponty s analysis of the reversible being-in-the-world. The social nature of being and the action-oriented intentionality of the lived body are embodied in Care and the Other. This ontological base of domestic skills enables us to see the extensions that inhabit in it. These extensions are redoing, emotional experiencing, adapting and emancipating. The analysis connects ability and action, which is why domestic skills and household activity must be seen as a united whole. This united whole is not the matter of the two components of the phenomenon, but is rather the matter of domestic skills as a way of being-in-the-world. Domestic skills are a channel for the phenomenon Home Economics to manifest in our lives. This is the gaze that presents domestic skills as to be like the poetry of everyday life. The main result of the study is the elucidation of the ontology of domestic skills and the naming of its extensions. This growth of philosophical understanding makes it possible to strengthen the science of home economics.

Las motivaciones personales fundamentales. Piedras angulares de la existencia

El desarrollo y la realización personal dependen, según el Análisis Existencial, del éxito en la confrontación con los “Temas Existenciales” de la vida. En el Análisis Existencial moderno la multiplicidad de estos temas pudo ser reducida a cuatro estructuras, que es posible considerar fundamentos de una existencia realizada, y pueden servir de modelos para una “pedagogía existencial” como para una “psicología existencial” y psicoterapia existencial, siempre orientada al desenvolvimiento de la persona; su bloqueo o un desarrollo insuficiente llevan, por el contrario, a trastornos psíquicos. La condición existencial del ser humano es básicamente dialógica, los temas fundamentales están en el acuerdo con lo fáctico y las condiciones del Dasein, con el hecho de la propia vida y con sus sentimientos y relaciones, con su propia individualidad (ser uno mismo, autonomía, autenticidad), y en definitiva, con el proceso de llegar a ser, que implica futuro y sentido.

A negatividade enquanto estrutura ontológica da existência segundo Heidegger

A presente dissertação tem por objeto o tema da negatividade ontológica constitutiva da existência humana na obra Ser e Tempo de Martin Heidegger. Na primeira parte é analisada as descrições efetuadas por Heidegger na primeira seção de Ser e Tempo sobre a dinâmica existencial do homem compreendido como ser-aí (Dasein). Nesse primeiro momento é evidenciado o caráter negativo da existência. Para tanto, partiremos da reconstrução dos conceitos de existência e deu seu caráter intencional e poder-ser (Seinkonnen) em Ser e Tempo. Na segunda parte, a análise da tonalidade afetiva da angústia é o ponto de partida para se chegar ao modo de ser do homem, descrito por Heidegger como cuidado (Sorge). Argumentaremos também, que o cuidado é o único modo de ser compatível com um ente que em seu modo de ser mais próprio é marcado por uma negatividade (incompletude) radical. Por último, em nosso terceiro capítulo, apresentaremos, em seus traços gerais, a possibilidade compatível com o caráter de poder-ser do ser-aí: a possibilidade da morte, compreendida ontologicamente como ser-para-a-morte. Na conclusão, apontaremos o interesse maior de Heidegger em investigar a dinâmica existencial do ser-aí. Esse interesse consiste, em visualizar, por meio do que Heidegger chama de crise existencial do ser-aí (proporcionada pela angústia) o ponto de gênese das ontologias.

O ser aí e a instância de produção dos conceitos e enunciados filosóficos em ser e tempo

O presente trabalho possui como objetivo central investigar a teoria acerca da origem da significação, presente na obra Ser e tempo, de Martin Heidegger, procurando mostrar em que medida a significação dos entes traz consigo a interpretação do conhecimento teórico como sendo uma transformação modal da relação semântica em que se movimenta medianamente o existente humano. Para tanto, procuraremos mostrar a partir da idéia de que existem dois extremos de um mesmo movimento de transformação semântica que caracterizam um processo de objetivação ou perda de sentido que a origem de sentido ou instância de produção de todos os conceitos e enunciados filosóficos reside no próprio ser-aí não como um sujeito cognoscente ou representacional, mas como um eu no sentido do si-mesmo próprio que, ao assumir a responsabilidade por seu ser, se mostra como sendo o ponto de vista modal a partir do qual é possível recorrer o sentido indo de encontro com sua própria atividade fundamental.

O Ser-aí, na análise existencial de ser e tempo

Os argumentos fundamentais dizem respeito à compreensão de que o ser-aí dá-se como totalidade, no âmbito de uma compreensão antecipativa, isto é, o ser-aí dá-se como uma compreensão que, a cada vez, antecipa a si mesma em já sendo. Essa totalidade dá-se simultaneamente como cuidado e poder-ser. Já as questões fundamentais às quais a obra Ser e Tempo dá voz dizem respeito à aproximação dos outros seres a cada vez envolver essa temporalidade antecipativa e à noção de que ao ser o ser-aí responde a um apelo do Ser, transformando-o em destino, a partir da possibilidade que é a dele. Procuraremos, assim, pensar de que forma o conceito de Dasein, o ser-aí, pode ser interpretado.

Ser quem se é: a experiência de uma existência autêntica em Heidegger, Hesse e Clarice

Buscando compreender o que seria e a própria possibilidade de uma experiência de existência de modo autêntico, o presente trabalho busca apresentar diferentes construções de tal experiência, escolhidas principalmente pela proximidade temática e do contexto de produção. No campo da filosofia, será apresentada a construção realizada pelo filósofo Martin Heidegger em Ser e Tempo, enquanto que no campo da literatura serão analisados traços das construções presentes em duas obras de Hermann Hesse O Lobo da Estepe e Sidarta e em duas obras de Clarice Lispector Uma Aprendizagem ou O Livro dos Prazeres e A Paixão Segundo G.H. Ele está dividido em três partes. A primeira refere-se à construção da experiência de existência autêntica em Ser e Tempo. Em seguida, serão analisados os quatro romances eleitos utilizando como referência, mas não se limitando a, conceitos heideggarianos. Por fim, será realizada uma análise comparativa, quando serão contrapostas as ferramentas utilizadas em cada romance para apresentar tal experiência, e então alguns desdobramentos possíveis serão apresentados. Como principal questão que liga as obras estudadas, pode-se perceber que em todas elas está presente o ser quem se é, modo no qual ocorre uma abertura própria do ser que nós mesmos somos

O fenómeno da morte: leituras em torno de Heidegger

Esta dissertação propõe um estudo do significado da morte enquanto condição da existência humana, acompanhando, para este fim, a análise do fenómeno desenvolvida por Martin Heidegger em Ser e Tempo. Para tal, faz-se uma exposição das principais estruturas existenciais que constituem o ser do Dasein, entre elas o serno- mundo e a estrutura tripartida do cuidado. Mediante a constatação da essencial incompletude da investigação até então desenvolvida, propõe-se uma análise do fenómeno da morte enquanto chave para a consideração teórica do Dasein como um todo, bem como para o acesso ao conceito de autenticidade. Neste sentido, examinamse as instâncias de compreensão pré-ontológica do fenómeno da morte por parte do Dasein e analisa-se a disposição da ansiedade. Conclui-se que a ansiedade dá a ver ao Dasein a possibilidade de conduzir uma existência autêntica, que consiste na apropriação do seu ser através da antecipação da morte, mediante a qual lhe são reveladas quais as suas possibilidades mais próprias. Explicita-se de que modo uma concepção de temporalidade originária tem a sua origem na antecipação da morte, sublinhando o facto de esta temporalidade estar implícita nos elementos que constituem a estrutura do cuidado. Por último, atenta-se sobre os comentários tecidos por Emmanuel Levinas a propósito do pensamento de Heidegger, dando especial atenção à sua crítica da primazia da morte própria face à morte de outrem no seio da analítica existencial. Em contraste com esta concepção, apresenta-se a proposta ética de Levinas, pondo em evidência a análise distinta do fenómeno da morte que a ela subjaz.

An investigation of the nature and role of historicality in the thought of Dilthey and Heidegger

Introduction The question of the meaning, methods and philosophical manifestations of history is currently rife with contention. The problem that I will address in an exposition of the thought of Wilhelm Dilthey and Martin Heidegger, centers around the intersubjectivity of an historical world. Specifically, there are two interconnected issues. First, since all knowledge occurs to a person from within his or her historical age how can any person in any age make truth claims? In order to answer this concern we must understand the essence and role of history. Yet how can we come to an individual understanding ofwhat history is when the meanings that we use are themselves historically enveloped? But can we, we who are well aware of the knowledge that archaeology has dredged up from old texts or even from 'living' monuments of past ages, really neglect to notice these artifacts that exist within and enrich our world? Charges of wilful blindness would arise if any attempt were made to suggest that certain things of our world did not come down to us from the past. Thus it appears more important 2 to determine what this 'past' is and therefore how history operates than to simply derail the possibility for historical understanding. Wilhelm Dilthey, the great German historicist from the 19th century, did not question the existence of historical artifacts as from the past, but in treating knowledge as one such artifact placed the onus on knowledge to show itself as true, or meaningful, in light ofthe fact that other historical periods relied on different facts and generated different truths or meanings. The problem for him was not just determining what the role of history is, but moreover to discover how knowledge could make any claim as true knowledge. As he stated, there is a problem of "historical anarchy"!' Martin Heidegger picked up these two strands of Dilthey's thought and wanted to answer the problem of truth and meaning in order to solve the problem of historicism. This problem underscored, perhaps for the first time, that societal presuppositions about the past and present oftheir era are not immutable. Penetrating to the core of the raison d'etre of the age was an historical reflection about the past which was now conceived as separated both temporally and attitudinally from the present. But further than this, Heidegger's focus on asking the question of the meaning of Being meant that history must be ontologically explicated not merely ontically treated. Heidegger hopes to remove barriers to a genuine ontology by II 1 3 including history into an assessment ofprevious philosophical systems. He does this in order that the question of Being be more fully explicated, which necessarily for him includes the question of the Being of history. One approach to the question ofwhat history is, given the information that we get from historical knowledge, is whether such knowledge can be formalized into a science. Additionally, we can approach the question of what the essence and role of history is by revealing its underlying characteristics, that is, by focussing on historicality. Thus we will begin with an expository look at Dilthey's conception of history and historicality. We will then explore these issues first in Heidegger's Being and Time, then in the third chapter his middle and later works. Finally, we shall examine how Heidegger's conception may reflect a development in the conception of historicality over Dilthey's historicism, and what such a conception means for a contemporary historical understanding. The problem of existing in a common world which is perceived only individually has been philosophically addressed in many forms. Escaping a pure subjectivist interpretation of 'reality' has occupied Western thinkers not only in order to discover metaphysical truths, but also to provide a foundation for politics and ethics. Many thinkers accept a solipsistic view as inevitable and reject attempts at justifying truth in an intersubjective world. The problem ofhistoricality raises similar problems. We 4 -. - - - - exist in a common historical age, presumably, yet are only aware ofthe historicity of the age through our own individual thoughts. Thus the question arises, do we actually exist within a common history or do we merely individually interpret this as communal? What is the reality of history, individual or communal? Dilthey answers this question by asserting a 'reality' to the historical age thus overcoming solipsism by encasing individual human experience within the historical horizon of the age. This however does nothing to address the epistemological concern over the discoverablity of truth. Heidegger, on the other hand, rejects a metaphysical construel of history and seeks to ground history first within the ontology ofDasein, and second, within the so called "sending" of Being. Thus there can be no solipsism for Heidegger because Dasein's Being is necessarily "cohistorical", Being-with-Others, and furthermore, this historical-Being-in-the-worldwith- Others is the horizon of Being over which truth can appear. Heidegger's solution to the problem of solipsism appears to satisfy that the world is not just a subjective idealist creation and also that one need not appeal to any universal measures of truth or presumed eternal verities. Thus in elucidating Heidegger's notion of history I will also confront the issues ofDasein's Being-alongside-things as well as the Being of Dasein as Being-in-the-world so that Dasein's historicality is explicated vis-a-vis the "sending of Being" (die Schicken des S eins).

Out of the darkness and into the light : a study of inauthentic and authentic speech

Introduction Man can be described as the being who shows himself in speech, and from birth to death is continually speaking. Communication is so close to us, so woven into our very being, that we have little understanding of the way it is constituted; for it is as hard to obtain distance from communication as it is to obtain distance from ourselves. All communication is not alike. There are two basic modesl of communication, the inauthentic and the authentic, between which there occurs a constant tension. It is in the inauthentic mode, points out Heidegger, that we find ourselves "proximately and for the most part"; 1. Being and Time, pg. 68 Dasein decides as to the way it will comport itself in taking up its task of having being as an issue for it. " •.• it~, in its very being 'choose' itself and win itself; it can also lose itself and never win itself or only "seem" to do so. But only in so far as it is essentially something which can be authentic--that is, something of its own--can it have lost itself and not yet won itself." 2. therefore Heidegger also terms it "everydayness".2 Caught up in the world of everydayness, our speaking covers over and conceals3 our rootedness in being, leaving us in the darkness of untruth. The image of darkness may be inferred from Heidegger's use of the image of "clearing,,4 to depict being as 2. ibid. pg. 69 "Dasein's average everydayness, however, is not to be taken as a mere 'aspect'. Here too, and even in the mode of inauthenticity, the structure of existentiality lies ~ priori and here too Dasein's being is an issue for it in a definite way; and Dasein comports itself towards it the mode of average everydayness, even if this is only the mode of fleeing in the face of it and forgetfulness thereof." 3. ibid. pg. 59 "covering over" and "concealing" are 1;yays Dasein tries to flee its task of having being as an issue for itself. " ••• This being can be covered up so extensively that it becomes forgotten and no question arises about it or its meaning ••• n How everyday speaking accomplishes this will be taken up in detail in the second chapter which explores Dasein's everyday speech. 4. ibid, pg. 171 lI ••• we have in mind nothing other than the Existential - ontological structure of this entity (Dasein), that it is in such a way as to be its 'there'. To say that it is -' illuminated' [tlerleuchtet"] means that as Being-in-theworld it is cleared [gelichtetJ in itself7 not through any other entity, but in such a way that it is itself the clearing. Only for an entity which is eXistentially cleared in this way does what is present-at-hand become accessible in the light or hidden in the dark •••• " 3 dis-coveredness and truth. Our first task will be to explore the nature of communication in general and then to explore each of the modes manifested in turn. The structure of the inauthentic mode of communication can be explored by asking the following questions: What is this speaking about? Who is it that is speaking and who is spoken to? Does this speaking show man in his speech? The authentic mode is distinguished by the rarity with which we encounter it; as the inauthentic conceals, so the authentic reveals our rootedness in being. Yet this rarity makes it difficult to delineate its elusive structure clearly. Its constituent elements can be brought into focus by asking the same questions of this mode that we previously asked of the inauthentic mode. Our initial response to the disclosure of the authentic mode is to attempt to abandon the inauthentic mode and leave the darkness behind dwelling only in the "lighted place". All through the ages, some men pushing this to extreme, have, upon uncovering their relatedness to being, experienced a deep longing to dwell in such a "place" of pure truth and oft times denigrated or attempted to exclude the everyday world. Such 4. flight is twice mistaken: first it atbempts to fix truth as unchanging and static and secondly, it opposes this to untruth which it seeks to abolish. This is both the wrong view of truth and the wrong view of untruth as Heidegger points out in The Origin of The-Work of Art: The Way-to-be of truth, i.e., of discoveredness, is under the sway of refusal. But this refusal is no lack or privation, as if truth could be simply discoveredness rid of all covers. If it could be that, it would no longer be itself . ••• Truth in its way-to-be is untruth.5 Pure light is not the nature of Being nor is pure unconcealedness possible for man. Failure to remember this is the failure to realize that communication destroys itself in such flight because it no longer maintains the contingency of its task, i.e., the dis-closedness of being. We are reminded of the strong attraction this flight from darkness held for Plato. Light, truth and Being are all beyond the darkness and have nothing to do with it. In Book VII of the R~public, Socrates' explanation of the Allegory of the Cave to Glaucon points to a decided preference men have for the "lighted place". 5. The Origin Of The Work Of Art, pg. 42 5. Come then, I said, and join me in this further thought, and do not be surprised that those who attained to this height are not willing to occupy themselves with the affairs of men, but their souls ever feel the upward urge and yearning for that sojourn above. For this, I take it, is likely if in this point too the likeliness of our image holds. 6 Despite the attraction to pure truth, human communication is more complex than putting down one mode of communication and picking up another. Due to the fact that we are always on the way, the title of my thesis will have to be amended: OUT OF THE DARKNESS AND INTO THE LIGHT--AGAIN AND AGAIN. It must be this way because this is what it means to be human. This is the point made by Mephisto to Faust in pointing out that man, standing between God and the devil, needs both darkness and light: Er findet sich in einem ewigen Gl~t Uns hat er in die Finsternis gebracht, Und euch taugt einzig Tag und Nacht. 7 6. Republic z (517 c & d) It should be noted however, that while the philosopherking must be compelled to return to the cave for purely political reasons, once he has taken adequate view of the "brightest region of being" he has the full truth and his return to darkness adds nothing to the truth. 7. Faust, pg. 188 6. This thesis proposes to examine the grounds that give rise to communication, uncovering the structure of its inauthentic and authentic modes and paying close attention to tpeir interrelationship and to their relationship to language as "the house of Being": language that both covers and opens up man's rootedness in Being, transforming him as he moves along his way, taking up his "ownmost task" of becoming who he is. roots. He is the being who shows himself inn that reflects his forgetfulness or remembrance of his rootedness in being. Man comes into an already existent world and is addressedl through things in the world which are c

Heidegger's tragic Greeks : the relation between presence and deinon

Martin Heidegger's interpretation of the ancients was born out of something like a crisis in the interpretation of the Greeks, which can be characterized as nothing other than the realization of the idea that the Greek philosophers put a serious question mark over existence. This idea, which had its germination in Prussia with Jakob Burckhart and his teacher, but first came to be seriously cultivated in the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, was the first in depth investigation into whether the Greeks, on the one hand, questioned existence or, on the other hand, put a question mark over existence. To question existence is rather innocuous, since it amounts to little more, in the end, than a child looking up at the stars and asking what it all means. To put a question mark over existence, however, is another business entirely. For the Greeks, as the life work of Martin Heidegger amply demonstrates, the nature of Greek thinking and the objects towards which it is directed follows so absolutely from the tragic view of the human person that, in a certain sense, philosophy is Greek and could only have developed in Greece. Perhaps stating it a little less categorically, philosophy could have developed elsewhere at least to the extent that something like they way the Greeks understood life was at the forefront: presence, in other words. This thesis deals with the problem ofHeidegger's relation to the Greeks, specifically in terms of his understanding of the Greeks and presence. It is the position of this dissertation that the Greek notion of presence is, as Heidegger understands it, the homeliness of the hearth that radiates through all the things that humans concern themselves with. This is thought by Heidegger, as the Greeks did, specifically in contrast with the uncanninesslunhomeliness of the hqrnan apart from his or her concern with things. Therefore, the thesis is an attempt at exposing the relation between presence and the unhomely by situating it withing Greek existence and the meaning of the Greek Philosopher. In order to support this position, the thesis has been divided into five parts. The first two chapters deal with Heidegger's explanation of the relation between Greek notion of physics (Phusis), metaphysics (specifically in relation to an analysis of time and motion in Greek thought), and what Heidegger calls the fundamental attunement of Dasein (boredom). More exactly, it deals with these issues only so far as they allow us to bring out something like the notion of 'presence' in relation to things and homelessness or restlessness in relation to the human being. The rationale for these two chapters in relation to the central problem of the paper is that in Heidegger's elucidation of physics and metaphysics, he conducts his analysis in such a way that he explicitly uncovers that dimension of human existence that he calls the fundamental attunement of Dasein. This fundamental attunement is, in tum, similar to what the Greeks understood as the deinon, the uncanninesslunhomeliness of the human. The third and fourth chapters take as their explicit themes the problem of the Greek understanding of the assertion and the ways in which the person can comport himlherself toward things, two issues which are not separable. The rationale for these two chapters in relation to the central theme of the paper is that Heidegger's analysis of these two areas in Greek thought brings out precisely why the philosopher and the philosophical way of life is the highest mode of existence for the Greeks and how this is thought specifically in tenns of the uncanniness of humans. The final cijapter gives a complete elucidation of presence as the homeliness of the hearth and shows specifically how this is thought of in contradistinction to the uncanny/unhomely for the Greeks. 1I1 This last chapter also explains Martin Heidegger's reaction to the Greek's interpretation of the highest mode of existence, and what he posited as a counter-thought. The essay as a whole is an attempt to fully concertize an important dimension of Heidegger' s understanding of the Greeks, that is, the relation between presence and the deinon or Greek notion ofunhomely, which, to my la)owledge, has not been offered anywhere in commentaries on Heidegger.

Conscience and Attestation : The Methodological Role of the “Call of Conscience” (Gewissensruf) in Heidegger’s Being and Time

Travail réalisé en cotutelle (Université de Paris IV-La Sorbonne).