Browsing by Subject "Heidegger"
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Item Heidegger's theft of faith : a campaign to suspend radical theology(2005-05) Weidler, Markus Mikula; Higgins, Kathleen Marie; Arens, Katherine, 1953-In this inquiry I pursue two tasks. First, I locate the roots of Heidegger's philosophical project historically within a specific theological discourse bent on redefining the relation between religion and politics. Heidegger's main, if covert, intent was to combat the egalitarian, pluralistic impulses carried by a tradition of critical Christology, which leads from F.W.J. Schelling's (1775-1854) Philosophy of Revelation to the work of the radical theologian-philosopher Paul Tillich (1886-1965). These egalitarian impulses spring from a broadened understanding of religious community as a material communication community unified through the use of shared symbols into a community of understanding, knowledge, and interests. The theoretical expansion and deepening of such a communication model, I detect in the writings of the renegade Neogrammarian, Hermann Paul, here considered in light of the "neo-Idealist" initiative of one of Paul's most prominent critics, the Romanist Karl Vossler. Prior to the advanced theological exposition of symbolically mediated communication, in works such as Tillich's book Dynamics of Faith (2001; Engl. orig.1957), the Neogrammarian movement in language studies, I argue, holds the key to accessing the cloaked Christological subtext of Heidegger's thought. Second, after thus locating Heidegger's philosophical agenda within its intellectual-historical context, I expose how Heidegger manipulates philosophical rhetoric to achieve the suspension of Schelling's theological legacy. My analysis of Heidegger's rhetorical behavior is focused on his Letter on Humanism (written 1946, published 1949), a text very overt in both its philosophical biases and its politics. The Humanismusbrief comes the closest to revealing Heidegger's own self-positioning within his generation. The work's conclusion provides a brief look ahead, or Ausblick, to indicate the main features of how these findings about the Letter can be brought to bear on Heidegger's masterpiece fragment, Being and Time. Through this approach, Heidegger's inherently political philosophy gains a much clearer profile in the context of its formative phase in the waning days of the Weimar Republic and opens a new perspective on later attempts by its author to "re-apply" his philosophical program to the cultural situation of postwar Germany, as well as to the ethical-epistemological problems remaining after twelve years of German isolationism.Item Mark the Music: Heidegger on Technology, Art, and the Meaning of Materiality(2012-10-19) Friedman, JamesThis thesis attempts to follow one of the central paths through the thought of Martin Heidegger. This path sets out from the chief danger that Heidegger believes to be facing the contemporary world and then proceeds onward through one of the ways we are able to affect a shift capable of setting the world aright. We conclude by taking a step of our own by proposing a counterpart, in music, to Heidegger's unpacking of the poetic dimension of art. Out notion of musical listening is meant to both clarify and extend the possibilities latent in Heidegger's theory. Through a reading of his important essay "The Question Concerning Technology" we begin by explicating Heidegger's diagnosis of modernity as unknowingly under the influence of the interpretation of being that he names "modern technology." Having secured an understanding of the problem we turn to several of Heidegger's essays on art wherein we undertake to extract the meaning of Heidegger's conviction that it is through art that we are able to overcome modern technology. We interpret several claims which, taken together, get to the heart of Heidegger's phenomenological take on the ontology of art. We then explicate Heidegger's appropriation of H?lderlin?s notion of poetic dwelling that names the authentic utilization of art for existence, and ultimately in the overcoming of modern technology. Finally, we depart from exegesis with our commentary on the role of materiality in the achievement of meaning. After dismissing some misconceptions which Heidegger's theory of poetry gives itself over to, we seek to develop his latent account of the role of materiality in the meaningfulness of art. Through a consideration of music, wherein sheer sensuousness prevails, the constitutive function of non-signifying materiality in meaning is presented and inscribed back into Heidegger's account of art as well as his later views on ethics. Just as poetry has an ontic and ontological sense in Heidegger's thought, so does our account of music serve a dual function. In addition to the familiar ontic phenomenon, music comes to name all art's transfiguration of materiality into manifestness.Item Questioning the Meaning of Authenticity in Martin Heidegger's Being and Time(2011-10-21) Liwinski, ThomasThe purpose of this thesis is to clarify the meaning of authenticity in Martin Heidegger's Being and Time. This is done first by situating the meaning of authenticity within the project as a whole, second through an exegesis of key parts of the text, and third, through an evaluation of certain scholarly commentaries. The ultimate aim is to argue against an interpretation of authenticity that carries an overly subjectivistic-individualistic connotation. The second chapter seeks to provide the necessary context for the meaning of authenticity within the project of Being and Time as a whole. The goal is to make transparent the situation that Heidegger finds himself in when he conceives of the necessity for the concept of authenticity. Towards this end, it is necessary to highlight those commitments to phenomenology and hermeneutics that informs Heidegger's effort. The third chapter first introduces the various characterizations of authenticity that Heidegger offers in Being and Time and the problematic meaning they suggest. Subsequently, the third chapter aims at creating a context for the meaning of those characterizations through an exegesis of the existentials of every existentiell disclosure of Dasein's being-in-the-world. By examining what it means for Dasein to be in the world in general, the goal is to narrow the scope of what authenticity can and cannot mean. The fourth chapter surveys certain commentaries on authenticity that argue in favor of a subjectivistic-individualistic emphasis for the meaning of authenticity. The goal is to isolate the key points in Being and Time that are used in support of these interpretations, and subsequently to use the frameworks created in Chapters II and III to articulate why such commentaries are incorrect. Finally, Chapter IV gestures towards the right meaning of those descriptions of authenticity that carry a subjectivistic-individualistic connotation in order to place them in the right context. The thesis concludes by suggesting that a non subjectivistic-individualistic interpretation fits more holistically with the other social-historical parts of the text, and that a subjectivistic-individualistic interpretation remains within the provenance of the kind of metaphysics that Heidegger wishes to distance himself from.Item The aesthetic turn in the face of nihilism(Texas A&M University, 2008-10-10) Craig, Benjamin TaylorThis thesis outlines one's overcoming of nihilism by consulting two figures, Martin Heidegger and John Dewey. Each thinker holds a pivotal role for art, such that, a turn to the aesthetic allows the individual to overcome this nihilistic age. I intend to show that Heidegger and Dewey mutually inform each other's project. Heidegger is able to shed light on Dewey's project; however, Dewey ultimately takes Heidegger's thought a step further. Heidegger understands the current age to be overcome with nihilism as a consequence of modern technological enframing as well the end of classical religious sensibilities. Heidegger, like Dewey, relies on aesthetics to correct this dilemma. Because of Heidegger's diagnosis of the problem, we can see a new context for Dewey's thought. Dewey does not speak in the language of nihilism, however, through Heidegger, we can see that they share a similar concern. Where Dewey takes Heidegger's thought a step forward is in regard to Dewey's emphasis on personal experience. This emphasis shifts the responsibility of overcoming nihilism away from Heidegger's poet and onto the individual. Dewey understands aesthetics to be a process of experience and art to be the culmination of this experience. This shift in responsibility is placed upon the individual because the individual is the arbiter of their doings and sole recipient of their undergoings. Consequently, the individual bears the consequences, and therefore the responsibility, of their experiences. Meaning, each individual holds the tools necessary to overcome nihilism inherent in one's own experience. The name for the process of properly weathering one's doings and undergoings is called the aesthetic life. The turn to personal responsibility, in the aesthetic life, allows the people to be the genesis of change rather than necessitating a leader, or poet. A community of people engaged in the aesthetic life is understood as democracy. Dewey's formulation of democracy, then, is not only a work of art but it also prevents the return of nihilism through the creation of a society always creating more possibility for its citizens.Item The question concerning Heidegger: technology and being, a deeper understanding(Texas A&M University, 2006-10-30) Taylor, James MichaelThe primary goal of this thesis is to show that Martin Heidegger's philosophy of technology stems directly from his ontology. Specifically that his notion of technology, as the enframing destining spirit of this age, is a revelation of being itself as technology in this age. The thesis begins with an introduction that sets up the major points and briefly summarizes each of the chapters. Chapter I primarily deals with the question of what motivates Heidegger to reflect philosophically on technology. This idea is also broadened to include the basic experiences and concepts that might cause anyone to reflect on technology. The historical, scientific, metaphysical, practical, personal, and spiritual are the motivational forces that drive someone to philosophize about technology. This is shown through an analysis of selected works from Iain Thomson, Don Ihde, W.P.S. Dias, and Hubert Dreyfus. The chapter ends with a return to the notion of being. Chapter II mainly deals with a textual analysis of the introduction to Being and Time, and The Question Concerning Technology. The idea of being is examined in detail, and a workable notion of being is extracted from the text. Then Heidegger's philosophy of technology is explained using the QCT. These ideas are put together and it is shown that technology is being as the destining of this present age. Yet technology poses a danger to being, and indeed to humanity. The third chapter examines the alternatives to this danger in the form of Heidegger's saving power, as discussed in his essay The Turning. The lesser dangers of technology are also reconsidered, as the truth of Heidegger's answer comes to light. The truth of the saving power is that releasement towards a new destining will surmount the danger of technology. Yet this reveals that being takes a care for humanity, and this opens up the path for the unconcealing of God's active power in the world of technology. Ultimately, only God can save humanity from the danger of technology, but He will only be revealed through the new destining revealing of being.