Scientia (Sep 2020)
“the last god” in Heidegger’s contributions to philosophy
Abstract
In the years after 1919, Heidegger began to call for a “deconstruction” (Abbau) or “destruction” (Destruktion) of Western intellectual traditions in an attempt to “save culture.” He proposed that the “deconstruction” and “destruction” of intellectual traditions should proceed from a re-examination of the original Greek interpretation of Being, which had been misunderstood completely and utterly trivialized. From hereon, he began to articulate Being within the sphere of the world; Being as unveiled and revealed in Dasein. But the investigation of Being did not stop in Being and Time. The meaning of Being lies in occurrence, that is, that the gods are not extant characters, but rather figures of remembrance and expectation. Only in dasein’s moment of existential longing can god be really empty of any claim and intention. This opens us to the “Last God” of the Contributions. References Dreyfus, Hubert and Mark Wrathall, eds. A Companion to Heidegger. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. Gelven, Michael. A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time. Chicago: Northern Illinois University Press, 1989 Guignon, Charles, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Gray, J. Glenn. “Heidegger’s Being” in The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 49, no. 12, 1992. Heidegger, Martin. Basic Writings. David Farrell Krell, ed. New York: Harper San Francisco, 1992. __________. Being and Time. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson, trans. Oxford: Blackwell, 1962. __________. Contributions to Philosophy: From Enowning. Parvis Emad and Kenneth Maly, tr. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999. __________. Introduction to Metaphysics. Gregory Fried and Richard Polt, tr. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000. __________. Parmenides. Andre Schuwer and Richard Rojcewicz, tr. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992. __________. The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. Albert Hofstadter, trans. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988. __________. The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude. William McNeill and Nicholas Walker, trans. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. __________. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. William Levitt, tr. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1977. Hemming, Laurence Paul. Heidegger’s Atheism: The Refusal of a Theological Voice. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002. Lawler, James. “Heidegger’s Theory of Metaphysics and Dialectics” in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Vol. 35, no. 3, 1975. Marion, Jean-Luc. God Without Being. Thomas A. Carlson, tr. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991. Nicholson, Graeme. Illustrations of Being: Drawing Upon Heidegger and Upon Metaphysics. New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1992. Polt, Richard. Heidegger: An Introduction. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. Rosenstein, Leon. “Mysticism as Preontology: A Note on the Heideggerian Connection” in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 31, No. 1, 1978. Scott, Charles, Susan Schoenbohm, Daniela Vallega-Neu, and Alejandro Vallega, eds. Companion to Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.
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