MARTIN HEIDEGGER: IN EUROPE AND AMERICA MARTIN HEIDEGGER b. September 26, 1889 in Messkirch, Baden, Germany MARTIN HEIDEGGER: IN EUROPE AND AMERICA edited by EDWARD G. BALLARD AND CHARLES E. SCOTT MARTINUS NIJHOFF I THE HAGUE I 1973 Most of the articles appearing in this volum" first appeared in TIre Soulhlrn Journal of PhilOStJphy, Volume 8, number 4, 1970 and are re printed here by permission of the editors of The Soulhern Journal and Department of Philosophy, Memphis State University, Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A. © 1973 by Marlinus NijhojJ, TIre Hague, Netherlands Sof/cover reprin, of,he harricover I." eriili(m 1973 All rights r"'mild, including the rights 10 Iranslate or /0 reprodue< this book or parts thereof in any form lSBN-13: 978-90-247-1534-3 e-1SBN-13:978-94-010-1981-/ DOl: /0./007/978-94-0/0-/98/-/ TABLE OF CONTENTS ROBERT COOPER, Martin Heidegger is eighty-years old VII Foreword IX OTTO POGGELER, Heidegger today KARL LOWITH, The nature of man and the world of nature for Heidegger's 80th birthday 37 ALEXANDER VON SCHOENBORN, Heidegger's question: An exposition 47 JOSEPH J. KOCKELMANS, Heidegger on time and being 55 HANS-GEORG GADAMER, Concerning empty and ful-filled time 77 CHARLES E. SCOTT, Heidegger and consciousness 91 THEODORE KISIEL, The mathematical and the hermeneutical: On Heideg- ger's notion of the apriori 109 K.-H. VOLKMANN-SCHLUCK, The problem oflanguage 121 JOHN SALLIS, Language and reversal 129 DON IHDE, Language and two phenomenologies 147 HAROLD G. ALDERMAN, The work of art and other things 157 F. J. SMITH, Two Heideggerian analyses 171 EDWARD G. BALLARD, On the pattern of phenomenological method 183 JEAN BEAUFRET, Heidegger seen from France 195 'S Mart'n He'degger Eighty-Years Old by ROBERT COOPER* Here: in this clearing: the evening falls in ragged smiles around the standing stones. In diminished light we do not ask, Why do stones stand? Things lie about us under random hands. The language of the light tilts the horizon to the monochrome center of dusk. A broken kaleidoscope is at hand. • Robert Cooper is the Episcopalian Chaplain at Vanderbilt University where he is also a teaching assistant in the department of philosophy. Having received the M.A. degree in philosophy from Louisiana State University, he is working toward the D.Div. degree at Van derbilt. His poems have appeared in numerous periodicals, including The Sewanee Review, The Southern Review, and The Christian Century. FOREWORD When Heidegger's influence was at its zenith in Gennany from the early fifties to the early sixties, most serious students of philosophy in that country were deeply steeped in his thought. His students or students of his students filled many if not most of the major chairs in philosophy. A cloud of reputedly Black Forest mysticism veiled the perspective of many of his critics and admirers at home and abroad. Droves of people flocked to hear lectures by him that most could not understand, even on careful reading, much less on one hearing. He loomed so large that Being and Time frequently could not be seen as a highly imaginative, initial approach to a strictly limited set of questions, but was viewed either as an all-embracing fmt order catastrophy incorporating at once the most feared consequences of Boehme, Kierkegaard, RiIke, and Nietzsche, or as THE ANSWER. But most of that has past. Heidegger's dominance of Gennan philosophy has ceased. One can now brush aside the larger-than-life images of Heidegger, the fears that his language was creating a cult phenomenon, the convictions that only those can understand him who give their lives to his thought. His language is at times unusually difficult, at times simple and beautiful. Some of his insights are obscure and not helpful, others are exciting and clarifying. One no longer expects Heidegger to interpret literature like a literary critic or an academic philologist. His purposes and iIJterests are different from representatives of those disciplines. Mter a period of extraordinary influence, both negative and positive, Heidegger has returned to life-size, to a creative philosopher from whom one can learn, whose thought makes no absolute, systematic demands, who is, in fact, remarkably open to differences, disagreements, and criticism. Yet Heidegger's writings are surely the strangest, the most unheimlich, upon the contemporary philosophic horizon. Since the way beyond this horizon not improbably lies through this philosophy, it holds a particular interest for us. In Heidegger's figure, his writings happen within the long evening of the spirit which intervenes between the time of the departure of the gods and the time of those not yet come. But in such a twilight it is difficult to know just how his writings are to be read in order that their significance for us be determined. Happily, Heidegger himself seems to respond to this difficulty in his letter to Professor Arthur H. Schrynemakers upon the occasion of the Heidegger symposium at Duquesne University in 1966.D There he recommends, not that his books be made the topic of analyses and commentary in the spirit of exact modem scholarship, but rather that they induce the reader to raise once again the question (or one of the questions) of Being. He seems to indicate that his books are intended to be a means for leading each individual reader to investigate and to experience on his own the same questioning which inspired this philosophy. Let us ask, then: what is the question of Being? What is the meaning of this question? What is the Sinn von Sein? We think it at least clear that the decision to raise this question is intended as the initiation of the way to philosophy. Thus, some grasp of the sense of the question is essential. In pursuing this grasp, it is not inappropriate to seek first to understand the meaning it has for Heidegger in his capacity as a participant in the philosophic conversation. Here it is reasonable to suppose that careful scholarly analyses are indeed a valuable instrument for detennining his role in this conversation. Also, it is well to remind oneself from time to time that penetration into the meaning of Being is not necessarily demonstrated by novelty of statement. A number of essays in this collection exemplify this spirt. They raise the basic philosophic question in the tenns used by Heidegger but are solicitous to preserve the philosophic intention by repeating in their own thought and expression the same way of which he has already D The letter is published in H,id'Rg" and fhe Path of Thinking, ed. John Sallis (Pittsburgh: Duquesne Umversity Press, 1970). pp. 9-11. made trial. They engage Heidegger more or less directly in dialogue. Other essays appear to be more remote from immediate concern with his published writings. Nevertheless, they are of the same genus and differ only superficially in their effort to tum radically back to the source of their being and of their culture or world. Among the continental essays, for example, Gadamer's and Volkmann-Schluck's constructive discussions, though deeply influenced by him, hardly mention Heidegger or his works. They are thematic reflections which, like a German noveUa, center on a point of focus that grows and develops through the attention created by the discussion. The essay as a whole, rather than an isolatable part, constitutes its idea or insight. Professor Lowith's paper grows out of long-standing disagreements with Heidegger and reflects some of the major critical responses that have been made against Heidegger's thought. Poggeler's discussion is concerned with direct intetpre tation as well as basic intetpretative principles which Poggeler finds most helpful. Beaufret, whose name has long been associated with Heidegger as the recipient of the Letter on Humanism in 1946, "sees" Heidegger through his essay in a way that one must admire as beautifully and utterly French. The discussions reflect some of the ways that Heidegger's philosophy lives in Europe. Their diversity of approach, their independence of style and intelligence, point to the philosophical importance of Heidegger: he has influenced and stimulated an enormous number of thinkers, helping them to think with intensity and per sistence, encouraging them to use their own ways of expression and to work on the problems and questions that seem most pressing to them, appearing to them as a philosopher who knows that most of what is worthy of thought has yet to be thought well. The genus of these writings is suggested, we believe, by a historical analogy already intimated by those commentators who regard Heidegger's philosophy as a kind of secularized theology. Recall that spiritual power, once held to be mediated through the church and its hierarchy, was--after the movement of the Reformation -supposedly brought into direct contact with each individual believer. Likewise, poetic life and humanistic values were once mediated by the cultured and talented few, whose insights, given beautiful form, became an education and the medium whereby meaning was given to the life of the many. Heidegger, we suggest, is in this respect something of a protestant in philosophy. By persuading each reader to experience for himself the questioning of Being, he seems to invite each to a kind of reformation intended to yield something of tre gift of poetical life and some personal share in this freedom. His radical reintetpretation of the history of philosophy rein forces this conviction. It is as if he sought to open the way to a new self-conscious ness by means of a return to sources. This renewed self-consciousness is initially an awareness of the self within a world which it nurtures and by which it is nurtured. Subsequently, it moves to an awareness of this nourishing interchange as the gift of a power which, like the gods, can be indicated only indirectly. This is the movement to a level of reflection by which the life of a world may be discovered. In such a manner might the courage be found to relinquish customs and beliefs now fallen away from their function and to renew the ethos of our time. The essays of this collection are all devoted, in their several ways, to discovering and setting forth some aspect of this movement of reflection. No doubt each would be most appropriately read if it, too, were to become an incitement to its readers to tum back to fundamental questioning. We should like to express our appreciation to the Heidelberg Akademie der Wissenschaften, which first published the essays by Gadamer, Volkmann-Schluck, Lowith, and Beaufret, for permission to publish the essays in translation, to Kiepen heuer und Witsch Verlag for permission to publish Poggeler's essay, to the Vanderbilt University Research Council for help in defraying the expenses of translation, to the Vanderbilt Department of Philosophy for help in defraying secretarial expenses, and particularly to Professor Gadamer for his help and cooperation in securing the Akademie essays for this publication. EDWARD G. BALLARD CHARLES E. Scorr HEIDEGGER TODAY H"DEGGER. rODAY· Orro POOoELEll University of Bochum The name of Martin Heidegger is for a short time-and then soon joined thoroughly connected with what has the opposition and went into solitude. been carried on in intellectual discus After the Second World War he once sion in the last fifty years. Just as, for more came forward with an apparent example, the name of Max Planck or ly new philosophical starting point and Kafka, Martin Buber or Rilke, Max ~ achieved wide acclaim. Today, Weber or Gropius, Karl Barth or Klee eIghty years old, he lives in Freiburg in is a signal which immediately arouses Breisgau.) We shall not speak pri the most varied emotions and provokes marily of the man Heidegger or es points of view, so also is the name pecially of the university professor, or 'Heidegger.' The discussion over Hei of his political or theological views and degger is carried on not only in the opinions. We shall deal, rather, solely quiet of reflection and reasonable dia with his philosophy and with all other logue, but also in the noisy business of issues only in relation to this philosophy. mass media and in university politics, The name 'Heidegger' stands for the even in pamphlets, comedies and nov philosophical task which attached it els. In such discussions, however, the self to this name. name 'Heidegger' is often nothing more As right as it is that Heidegger's than a shibboleth which is handled only name is attached to the intellectual too superficially. Presently, however, discussion of the fifty years and that the discussion of Heidegger is to be un this name stands for a philosophical derstood as the interpretation of the task, the title "Heidegger Today" does work of a philosopher who in our time not ring true. One could be of the was able to further the classical, phil opinion that the emphatic way of re osophical tradition. Thus we are not lating Heidegger's philosophizing and discussing here Heidegger the man. 'today' was not always wrong, but bas (He was born in 1889 in Messkirch, become so in the meantime: that the north of the Lake of Constance. In sudden success of Sein und Zeit and Freiburg i. Br. he studied first Roman the surprising, new impact of Rei Catholic theology and then philosophy degger after the Second World War and the natural sciences and there be belong conclusiVely to the past, that came recognized as academic lecturer Heidegger's thought has become a side in philosophy under Rickert and taught issue. The fact is that the image from under Husserl. In 1923 he went to the first fifteen years after the last Marburg and worked together with the World War, when police had to be em Protestant theologian Rudolf Bultmann. ployed in order to control the masses With one blow, by means of his book streaming to lectures by Heidegger, Sein und Zeit, he became one of the leading philosophers and was called to Otto Pogg.l.r is Ord.ntlich,r Prof,ssor ot Freiburg as successor to his teacher, thtl r,cently .slohlish.d UnifJllrsity of Bo Husserl. In 1933 after the coup d'etat chum ond director of ,h. He,el-Archiv at of the National Socialists, he, as Rec that "niversity• . H. hIlS written Der Denk tor of the University of Freiburg, sur we~ Martin Heideggers ond is th. editor of Heldegger: Penpektiven zur Deutung seines prisingly.declared himself for Hitler- Werks 4fld Hegel-Studien. • This article first appeared in Heide,ger: Ptlrs/lektiven zur DlUtun, "in,s Werks, eel. O. PageJer, Neue Wissenschaftliche Bibliothek 34, Kiepenheuer und Witlch, Kaln und Berlin, 1969. Translated by R. Phillip O'Hara. OTTO POGGELER Ortega y Gasset or Sartre, has been Heidegger himself provided a series of replaced by other images. Heidegger's works under the title Unterwegs ZU1 philosophy no longer belongs to the Sprache, he did not have in mind to philosophical currents which are fash refer to all of those paths on which ionable and topical (even the interest our time believes itself to be on the which Heidegger's thought has encoun way to language, whether that be the tered outside of Germany does not al diverse ways of philology or the phi ter this assertion). And it is not only losophy of language, or even the paths the philosophical currents that have of those philosophies which designate changed, but also the relationship be themselves as 'linguistic.' Heidegger tween philosophical or philosophically treads the narrow edge of the path of inspired ideas and a wider public has one question which for him is the only changed (thereby also the relation be one, and whoever wanders such a nar tween these ideas and the police). row way - a way which involves the When our time attempts to free itself heavens above, the abyss beneath, the from the claim which Heidegger's narrow line of the path in front-looks thought has made upon its thought, neither to the right nor to the left. however, it accomplishes, in accord The title "Heidegger Today," how with Heidegger, that separation by ever, does not therefore sound false be which he himself attempted to free cause Heidegger's thought and the himself from the 'today' and its actuali actualities of today have gone separate ties. To be sure, Heidegger's thought ways in the meantime, or because the remained very concretely related to the appearance of proximity has been decisive questions and endeavors of abolished. Indeed, the title could have our time. Heidegger did not develop been intended to express precisely this his thoughts about "Building, Dwelling, divergence. The title already has a Thinking," for example, in an eso false ring because Heidegger's thought teric circle, nor among technical phi makes the claim that it cannot be un losophers. He developed those thoughts, derstood at all from that foreground rather, in that circle, which in Darm which we denominate with the word stadt - fifty years after the first ex "today." To be sure this thought, like hibition of the Darmstadt Art Colony hardly any other, refers to the mo of 1901, this milestone in the archi ment, the kairos. But this moment, for tectural development of the 20th cen his thought, is not that which is offered tury - attempted to make clear publicly as the 'today' of the Twenties (through retrospect and prospect, Jubi and Thirties or Fifties and Sixties of lee exhibition, and discussion) to which the Twentieth Century. Should we tradition contemporary construction is speak of a 'today' in Heidegger's sense indebted and how a city, after the - of us contemporaries, of today's destruction of the Second World War, thought, of today's conceptual task - could aspire to a future of construction then this 'today' of thought would have and habitation. Such proximity to the to be determined by the fact that in it questions of the times, however, did the thought and conduct of 2000 not for Heidegger include the proxim years wait to be made public in their ity to the efforts by which this pe questionableness and wait to enter into riod itself attempted to decide its ques a history of which we know only the tions philosophically and scientifically. most initial beginnings. In this 'today' It proved more and more to have been an Aristotle or an Augustine, a Heracli a misunderstanding still to want to en tus or a HOlderlin, a Greek eyeglass counter Heidegger on the way of his or a result of research in physics or a later thought by attempting to honor vague, intimated possibility of future him by documenting "Heideggers Ein biological research and technology fluss auf die Wissenschaften." Even if could be more modern than that which 2