Abstract
The question of Heideggerian gods is a multifaceted problem that has suffered from the lack of concrete methodological propositions. According to my interpretation this state of affairs is due to confusion concerning the possibilities that Heideggerian gods assumably can offer to philosophy. On the one hand Heideggerian gods seem to work in a similar way to gods of religions, namely like personal actors, but on the other hand their further explication, especially from the already familiar perspectives of religions, is usually dismissed even by Heidegger himself. In my paper I propose that this procedure of Heidegger’s can be interpreted as a positive gesture that is supposed to function as a free, conceptually unlimited space to the further development of such a thematic. However, this means that the meaning of Heideggerian gods is not to be found by systematic interpretation of Heidegger’s writings, but, instead, it is to be found from applied study that tries to reach these gods in their own appearance. The basic question concerning Heideggerian gods is, thus, to find access to the sphere of their effectual presence. Consequently, as a solution to this problem I present a model of communication, based on Heidegger’s formulation of the discussion (Gespräch) of mortals and gods that can be found from our everyday practices and their intentional grounds.
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Notes
- 1.
Werner Marx, Is There a Measure on Earth? Foundations for a Nonmetaphysical Ethics, trans. Thomas J. Nenon, Reginald Lilly (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1987).
- 2.
Hubert Dreyfus, Sean Dorrance Kelly, All Things Shining. Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (New York: Free Press, 2011).
- 3.
Martin Heidegger, The Origin of the Work of Art, ed. David Farrell Krell, trans. Albert Hofstadter (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 167.
- 4.
ibid., p. 159.
- 5.
Martin Heidegger, Elucidations of Hölderlin’s Poetry, trans. Keith Hoeller (New York: Humanity Books, 2000), p. 73.
- 6.
ibid., pp. 91–92.
- 7.
G.W.F. Hegel, Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics, ed. Michael Inwood, trans. Bernard Bosanquet (London: Penguin Books, 2004), pp. 11–12, 103–104.
- 8.
Martin Heidegger, Parmenides, trans. André Schuwer and Richard Rojcewicz (Bloomington: Indiana University Press), p.111. Heidegger, On the Way to Language, trans. Peter D. Hertz (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982), p. 169.
- 9.
Emmanuel Levinas, Ethics and Infinity. Conversations with Philippe Nemo, trans. Richard A. Cohen (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1997), pp. 40–41, 119.
- 10.
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. Joan Stambaugh (Albany: State University of New York Press), pp. 68–71.
- 11.
Gabriel Marcel, The Mystery of Being: I. Reflection & Mystery, trans. G.S. Fraser (London: The Harvill Press Ltd, 1950), p. x
- 12.
Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 1.
- 13.
Vincent Vycinas, Heidegger’s Earth and Gods. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1969), p. 188.
- 14.
Heidegger, Elucidations of Hölderlin’s Poetry, p. 56.
- 15.
Heidegger, On the Way to Language, p. 30.
- 16.
Martin Heidegger, Discourse on Thinking, trans. John. M. Anderson and E. Hans Freund. (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), p. 70.
- 17.
By the concept of vertical I do not refer to such religious or neo-Platonic interpretations in which verticality inherently contains reference to some kind of absolute being or goodness that is the source of all meaningfulness. Instead in this paper the use of verticality should be understood in a phenomenological manner that stresses the difference of vertical and horizontal givenness and their different ways of enabling the experience of meaningfulness. The use of verticality in this article follows the definition of verticality given by Anthony J. Steinbock. “The spheres of experience and evidence that are more robust than just those of objects, I call vertical givenness […]”. Anthony J. Steinbock, Phenomenology and Mystics: The Verticality of Religious Experience (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007), p. 1.
- 18.
Unfortunately there is not sufficient space to explicate this process here in detail. However, my explication is based on constructive reformulation of such notions of mirroring that Jean-Luc Marion presents in his book God Without Being. In his treatise Marion defines gods as idols that function as mirrors that freeze the gaze of man. My own interpretation of gods does not stress their character as idols but concentrates on their capabilities to make visible intersubjective structures of our reflective capacities. In general the problematic that arises from the basis of gods’ reflective character is closely tied to the themes of our identities and our authenticity or inauthenticity. In short, this problematic is based on the fact that gods can reflect our own “essential” features, but also the features that we want to see as our essence because they are features that are desired by the other. If I, for example, desire a very expensive men’s suit, most probably this does not tell so much about my desire but the desire of others. The moral implications of this problematic must be postponed to later papers.
- 19.
Martin Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought, trans. Albert Hofstadter (New York: Harper & Row, 2001), pp. 170–171.
- 20.
Dreyfus, Kelly, All Things Shining, p. 62.
- 21.
Charles Taylor, “Heidegger on Language”, in A Companion to Heidegger, ed. Hubert L. Dreyfus, Mark A. Wrathall (Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005), pp. 438–439.
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Vanhala, J. (2014). How to Approach Heideggerian Gods. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) Phenomenology of Space and Time. Analecta Husserliana, vol 116. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02015-0_26
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