Heidegger
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Diego Araya
Dr. West Gurley
Aesthetics
March 10, 2016
Heidegger (Change title later)
In
The Origin of the Work of Art
it takes some time for Martin
Heidegger to establish concrete definitions as to what is art. Once reached,
however, Heidegger slowly, surely, and almost implacably tells the reader
that art is nothing less than the “unconcealing” of Truth itself, a way in
“which truth comes into being…”.
1
Art is far from a commodity or a simple
good to be crafted, created, traded, sold, or auctioned off to the highest
bidder for the sake of residing idly, accumulating further value for the
buyer. Instead, art moves beyond the realm of simple object and exists as an
organic entity, more verb than noun. It intertwines with Nature, Truth,
Reality and Beauty, interconnecting these seemingly separate notions.
Heidegger states, “Beauty is one way in which truth occurs as
unconcealedness”.
2
The unconcealed truth,
aletheia
, is what art aims to
present to the world. Reality as it is, uncompromised and benevolently
indifferent to our prejudices.
3
Upon doing so, “beautiful” art is unconcealing
Reality, showing us Truth as it is, never as it ought to be.
4
Reality is Truth,
and furthermore is the Nature of what is being unconcealed.
5
Following the
1 Pg. 75
2 Pg. 54
3 This is the part in class where I would likely say “objective reality”.
4 68
5 53
Diego Araya
Dr. West Gurley
Aesthetics
March 10, 2016
circularity of Heidegger’s writing, wherein he establishes that not only is
artist the origin of the artwork, but the artwork the origin the of the artist
and art the origin of both, Nature, Truth, Reality, and Beauty seem to be
connected in an endless circle.
If we establish philosophy as one large conversation with a chorus of
voices refuting, debating, and building off one another, the chain of thought
leading to Heidegger’s part in this dialogue seems directly preceded by
Kant, Schopenhauer, and Hegel. Interestingly, there is a correlation
between Leo Tolstoy and Heidegger, though it seems unlikely they arrived
at this point through similar reasoning. Tolstoy’s envisioning of art as
pivotal to understanding emotion and establishing empathy bears stronger
similarities than might initially appear, with a Heideggerian view of art
being an elaboration upon the intellectually simplistic and straightforward
Tolstoyan view.
6
Both perceive art as a means to understand truth, but for
Tolstoy, human experience is that Truth. Art as the great unconcealer
erodes away at the unsayable, revealing the Nature and Reality of
seemingly disparate experiences. Here, human experience
is
Reality,
however diminutive on the scale of the cosmos and the Universe. Yet each
singular human experience, or emotion as Tolstoy would specify, forms a
6 I mean that in the absolute kindest way towards Tolstoy; I disagree with aspects of his thinking, but I understand
it. This is also obviously not in any way criticizing Tolstoy as intellectually simplistic himself,
War and Peace
will
never cease to intimidate me and
Anna
Karenina
illustrates his ideal of art as emotional communication beautifully.
Diego Araya
Dr. West Gurley
Aesthetics
March 10, 2016
piece of a greater Truth, however subjective that individual Truth.
Introducing Schopenhauer and Hegel into this, the Will of the former and
Geist
of the latter are that which is being revealed.
7
Heidegger’s
dasein
is
but a more personal conceptualization of the two, a personal experience of
the Will, the
Geist.
8
Being, as Heidegger views it, has taken these
incorporeal, ethereal concepts and channeled them explicitly through
experience. Indeed the Heideggerian view of art as origin to artwork,
artwork as origin to artist, artist back to artwork, ad inifinitum permits- and
arguably requires- a
primum movens
. Eschewing any monotheistic,
religious, or New Age quasi-religious connotations that this mover is some
sentient entity or spiritual being,
Geist
would be the
Ursprung
from which
art originates. The
Geist
fuels the cycle and as the cycle turns and its stages
fulfilled, Reality, Truth, Nature, and Beauty are unconcealed and brought
forth. Kant’s pivotal part of this dialogue is no less important. Presenting
the audience with the worlds of the noumenal and the phenomenal, Kant
has established that because of our nature, we are incapable of truly
understanding the phenomenal
-art as not a “mere thing”? (One half page paragraph)
7 Full apologies to Schopenhauer for virtually lumping him together with Hegel.
8 From this point on, I’ll refer to both as
Geist
for the sake of conciseness, although I am aware Schopenhauer and
Hegel formulated both as similar, yet different concepts. I also prefer the look and pronunciation of
Geist
.
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Diego Araya
Dr. West Gurley
Aesthetics
March 10, 2016
-
Origin
reworks aesthetics as a whole to view art differently, shifts view
from previous conceptualizations of art (Bring in comparisons to Kant,
Socratics, Hume, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche)
-What’s the conflict between phenomenal/noumenal and human nature (???)
Build off your previous reference to Kant?
-Go back two sections and link to the Jena Romantics, Sch. Hegel Nietz.
(Three paragraphs?)
-Elaborate on Heidegger’s subject matter and his writing style. “Circularity”
(Should take at least half the page)
-