Heidegger's The Origin of the Work of Art: Part I

Many people are familiar with the German philosopher Martin Heidegger through his widely considered magnum opus, Being and Time.

But what did Heidegger after Being and Time think? How did his philosophical project evolve? Unbeknownst to general English-speaking audiences, Heidegger remained prolific throughout his life even though he did not produce an original work of the systematic caliber of Being and Time.

In this meetup, we will focus on a text called the "The Origin of the Work of Art" published in 1935.

The text consists of an introduction and three sections: i. Thing and Work, ii. The Work and Truth, iii. Truth and Art.

In it, Heidegger adopts a wider lens than the narrower scope of Being and Time as the existential analytic of Dasein.

However, just as in the former, the wider frame of fundamental ontology is not abandoned. Rather, Heidegger pursues the subject through a combination of stylistically lyrical prose rich with metaphor and his familiar circuitous philosophical phraseology strewn with concepts like the Open, the clearing, Unconcealedness, world and earth, to name a few.

We will proceed together through a slow reading of Heidegger's work divided in three parts corresponding to each of the sections.

Setting up context through Heidegger's earlier work will be encouraged. Familiarity with Being and Time is helpful though not required (however some familiarity with his ideas is necessary). We will strive to draw connections to the project in Being and Time as well as sites of departure. But more importantly, as we odyssey through the text we will consider whether Heidegger's philosophy ventures into novel and contemporarily relevant territory, and whether we disagree in part or wholesale with his conception of art and its connection to truth and history.

Some aspects of the text might raise red flags in light of Heidegger's political life. Whether justified or not, these aspects of the text will also require discussion and careful consideration.

Though not always this dense, here are some examples of gnomes and aphoristic statements in the text:

"The art work opens up in its own way the Being of beings."

"Art is the becoming and happening of truth."

"The work opens up a world and keeps it abidingly in force"

"World and earth are essentially different from one another and yet are never separated. The world grounds itself on the earth, and the earth juts through the world. ...The world, in resting upon the earth, strives to surmount it. As self-opening it cannot endure anything closed. The earth, however, as sheltering and concealing, tends always to draw itself into the world and keep it there."

"Earth juts through the world and the world grounds itself on the earth only so far as truth happens as the primal conflict between clearing and concealing. ...Setting up a world and setting forth the earth, the work is the fighting battle in which the unconcealedness of beings as a whole, or truth, is won."

"Where there is no language, as in the being of stone, plant, and animal, there is also no openness of what is, and consequently no openness either of that which is not and of the empty" -p.71.

"What art founds can ... never be compensated and made up for by what is already present and available"

These statements become meaningful only by working through the text. So a careful reading of it will be a prerequisite to participate in the discussion.