Abstract
This article addresses the co-belonging of self and ground. I argue that, between 1927 and 1930, ‘self’ for Heidegger comes to mean something like that which gathers into a cohesive whole. By the Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis) of 1936–1938, it seems the word has lost much of its reference to humans beings and has come to mean an originary space or site which gathers I, you, we, a people, as and into a historical context. However, this paper will demonstrate that Heidegger still talks of something ‘more-than-human’ that contributes to what we understand when we understand what it means to be a self. I argue, however, that it is precisely in being claimed by this something ‘more-than-human,’ the task of being claimed by and responding to an abyssal ground, that Heidegger reinterprets philosophy’s need to attend to the essence of ground not as fundamentum absolutum but rather as a fundamentum ab-sconditus to which the self belongs.
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Notes
- 1.
Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann, ‘Contributions to Philosophy and Enowning Historical Thinking,’ in Companion to Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy, ed. Charles E. Scott (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 111.
- 2.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, La Prose du monde (Paris: Gallimard, 1969), 64.; Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Prose of the World, trans. John O’Neill (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973), 46.
- 3.
Wilhelm S. Wurzer, ‘Heidegger’s Turn to Germanien—a Sigetic Venture,’ in Heidegger Toward the Turn: Essays on the Work of the 1930s, ed. James Risser (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999), 188. See also Daniel Panis, ‚La Sigétique,‘ Heidegger Studies 14(1998): 111–127.
- 4.
See Peter Warnek, ‘Translating Innigkeit: The Belonging Together of the Strange,’ in Heidegger and the Greeks, ed. Drew Hyland and John Manoussakis (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 57–82. See also David Farrell Krell, Lunar Voices: Of Tragedy, Poetry, Fiction, and Thought (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995), 40–45.
- 5.
Sigmund Freud, ‘A Difficulty in the Path of Psychoanalysis,’ in An Infantile Neurosis. Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works (Volume 17) (London: Hogarth, 1974), 143.
- 6.
Michel Haar, Heidegger et l’essence de l’homme (Grenoble: Jérôme Millon, 1990), 103–108. On this very issue, see François Raffoul, ‘Rethinking Selfhood: From Enowning,’ Research in Phenomenology 37, no. 1 (2007): 75–94.
- 7.
Franco Volpi, La selvaggia chiarezza. Scritti su Heidegger (Milano: Adelphi Edizioni, 2011), 211. Translation is mine.
- 8.
Richard Polt, ‘Meaning, Excess, and Event,’ Gatherings: The Heidegger Circle Annual 1(2011): 34.
References
Freud, Sigmund. 1974. A difficulty in the path of psychoanalysis. In An infantile neurosis. standard edition of the complete psychological works (Volume 17). London: Hogarth.
Haar, Michel. 1990. Heidegger Et L’essence De L’homme. Grenoble: Jérôme Millon.
Krell, David Farrell. 1995. Lunar voices: Of tragedy, poetry, fiction, and thought. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1969. La Prose Du Monde. Paris: Gallimard.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1973. The Prose of the World. Trans. John O’Neill. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Panis, Daniel. 1998. La Sigétique. Heidegger Studies 14: 111–127.
Polt, Richard. 2011. Meaning, excess, and event. Gatherings: The Heidegger Circle Annual 1: 26–53.
Raffoul, François. 2007. Rethinking selfhood: From enowning. Research in Phenomenology 37(1): 75–94.
Volpi, Franco. 2011. La Selvaggia Chiarezza. Scritti Su Heidegger. Milano: Adelphi Edizioni.
von Herrmann, Friedrich-Wilhelm. 2001. Contributions to Philosophy and Enowning Historical Thinking. In Companion to Heidegger’s contributions to philosophy, ed. Charles E. Scott, 105–128. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Warnek, Peter. 2006. Translating Innigkeit: The belonging together of the strange. In Heidegger and the Greeks, ed. Drew Hyland and John Manoussakis, 57–82. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Wurzer, Wilhelm S. 1999. Heidegger’s Turn to Germanien—a Sigetic Venture. In Heidegger toward the Turn: Essays on the work of the 1930s, ed. James Risser, 187–207. Albany: State University of New York Press.
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Keane, N. (2015). The Self that Belongs to an Abyssal Ground: Reading Heidegger’s Beiträge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis) . In: Georgakis, T., Ennis, P. (eds) Heidegger in the Twenty-First Century. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 80. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9679-8_4
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