Poetry, Language, Thought (Harper Perennial Modern Thought)

I read this book for a graduate seminar on philosophy of art. Martin Heidegger's Poetry, Language, and Thought," is his treatise on how humans "see" art and is connected to his he deconstruction of phenomenology. His kind of phenomenology has to do with the idea of phenomenon, which means something that appears and shows itself. His criticism of traditional philosophy is that it gets started with categories, concepts, and notions, departing from the way human comprehension of this world first shows itself. This is Aristotelian and Aristotle is an enormous influence on Heidegger. Yet, there is something very radical going on here, and that is the idea of "being" is connected to meaning and negativity. In the history of philosophy, being has a positive concept, something that "is" thus, the opposite of being is none being. Heidegger wants to show how the meaning of being is distorted by this understanding of being as a purely positive concept, as a "thing" a full present entity. He also very much critiques in modern art, the modern conception of objectivity, the world is transformed into an object independent of art, of its significance, its meaning, or interest in it. This was due in large part because of modern science, and its strong sense of objectification converting nature into a set of mere objects, time, and space that are measurable and analyzable through scientific means. So, when we come across the world, first and foremost it is not a mere object that is standing apart from us or our mind, but rather it has significant elements of our environment that fit into our lives. Some things are significant, or they are useful, or dangerous, or satisfying, etc. What Heidegger wants to say in his phenomenology is we have to pay attention to this way of being. So, first and foremost he says "being" matters, it matters to us. "Being" is a significance, it is not just a bare object or a bare fact. Notice right away, when we get to the idea of art, he is going to have the same disposition toward art. Art isn't something that is just a bare object that is outside of us, nor is it a subjective interior experience it is rather, part of our world. You wouldn't want to classify art in ways that would assume certain categories ahead of time, like "it isn't a natural object therefore, it must be an expression of human emotion." That would be a very typical modern concept. Heidegger would critique this because, since he doesn't accept this idea of subject on one side and object on the other side, that means that when humans have their understanding of the world, it is not just a human projection, it is not just a human construction. It is a revealing way of seeing; it is world disclosive. The meaning of the world wouldn't happen without us, because we are the ones that find it meaningful. For Heidegger, he says that paintings are, the phrase he uses is, "being immortal." We are not just a subject apart from the world, but are "in

Heidegger's writings are difficult, though this is a good introduction to some of his ideas. While many of the terms he seems to use casually are not defined, a thorough read will help the reader get a greater grasp on Heidegger's thoughts. The poems he cites are central, and the poems at the beginning of the work are virtually incomprehensible without a full knowledge of what Heidegger means by this. Some important words, such as the "turning" are left undefined in this book. While this is a good introduction, The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays is helpful for anyone looking for the relationship between technology and art (techne) and also the subject-object relationship and the relationship of the world to the so-called "worldview." Anyone serious about Heidegger will have to reread and cross-reference between his works, so when advised to read this book first, it doesn't mean there is any fast track to understanding Heidegger. At best, it is slightly less difficult. Being and Time might wisely be saved until later. The book being reviewed here is the most accessible of his writings. Heidegger's discussion of the "void" inside a jug being what does the holding parallels Taoist discussions on emptiness. While there are many translations, Red Pine's bilingual version (now out of print) is the best I have found yet: Lao-tzu's Taoteching: with Selected Commentaries of the Past 2000 Years. In section 4 & 11 of the Tao Te Ching, the references mentioned above can be found. Derivative writers such as Erazim Kohak continues many Heideggerian themes and writes about "rediscovering the gifts of darkness, isolation, and pain": The Embers and the Stars. A more rigorously Heideggerian interface with religion is seen in Louis-Marie Chauvet, who claims that Heidegger's approach to being is homologous to the approach to God: Symbol and Sacrament: A Sacramental Reinterpretation of Christian Existence. For a related work on "world" and the work of the artist, Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition (2nd Edition) is highly recommended. Many of its concepts help provide doorways into Heidegger's concepts. Hannah Arendt, once Heidegger's lover, was consulted for Albert Hofstadter's translation of Poetry, Language, Thought. Richard Sennett's The Craftsman is also useful for the exploration of craft, work, and art.

I read this book for a graduate seminar on philosophy of art. Martin Heidegger's Poetry, Language, Thought," is his treatise on how humans "see" art and is connected to his he deconstruction of phenomenology. His kind of phenomenology has to do with the idea of phenomenon, which means something that appears and shows itself. His criticism of traditional philosophy is that it gets started with categories, concepts, and notions, departing from the way human comprehension of this world first shows itself. This is Aristotelian and Aristotle is an enormous influence on Heidegger. Yet, there is something very radical going on here, and that is the idea of "being" is connected to meaning and negativity. In the history of philosophy, being has a positive concept, something that "is" thus, the opposite of being is none being. Heidegger wants to show how the meaning of being is distorted by this understanding of being as a purely positive concept, as a "thing" a full present entity. He also very much critiques in modern art, the modern conception of objectivity, the world is transformed into an object independent of art, of its significance, its meaning, or interest in it. This was due in large part because of modern science, and its strong sense of objectification converting nature into a set of mere objects, time, and space that are measurable and analyzable through scientific means. So, when we come across the world, first and foremost it is not a mere object that is standing apart from us or our mind, but rather it has significant elements of our environment that fit into our lives. Some things are significant, or they are useful, or dangerous, or satisfying, etc. What Heidegger wants to say in his phenomenology is we have to pay attention to this way of being. So, first and foremost he says "being" matters, it matters to us. "Being" is a significance, it is not just a bare object or a bare fact. Notice right away, when we get to the idea of art, he is going to have the same disposition toward art. Art isn't something that is just a bare object that is outside of us, nor is it a subjective interior experience it is rather, part of our world. You wouldn't want to classify art in ways that would assume certain categories ahead of time, like "it isn't a natural object therefore, it must be an expression of human emotion." That would be a very typical modern concept. Heidegger would critique this because, since he doesn't accept this idea of subject on one side and object on the other side, that means that when humans have their understanding of the world, it is not just a human projection, it is not just a human construction. It is a revealing way of seeing; it is world disclosive. The meaning of the world wouldn't happen without us, because we are the ones that find it meaningful. For Heidegger, he says that paintings are, the phrase he uses is, "being immortal." We are not just a subject apart from the world, but are "in it.

Hofstader's capable translation of these extraordinary Heidegger essays makes this one of the indispensable books of 20th century philosophy. This collection is especially indicative of Heidegger's 'turn' to art and poetry, particularly in his amazingly complex 'Origin of the Work of Art' and 'Poetically, Man Dwells.' 'The Thing' is also a remarkable essay in Heidegger's descriptions of the closing of distances in modernity, as well as his phenomenological observations of the relation between things and world. This is an excellent representation of Heidegger's philosophy of Language, and Hofstader has translated them quite well, even if the translations of Holderlin are a bit too cautious.

One of the clearer expositions of Heidegger's later thought is Das Ding, anthologized in this volume. You are free to read the other selections ("the essence of language is the language of essence" ad nauseum) but das Ding begins with a phenomenological description of a Krug (a cup) that became rarer as Heidegger got older. The emptiness in the cup is the origin, like the hand that reaches out (from the past and the future) of being and the world. The Krug which pours out its offering (Gift: poison and present) from the emptiness of the Krug: the emptiness is the absent center (the eccentric core) of being and world. The Krug offers its gift, but not the krug, but its emptiness, and it is that gift which is the gift of world.