Heidegger’s Metaphilosophy: A New Reconstruction
Abstract
The essay proposes a new reconstruction of Heidegger’s metaphilosophy. Providing a common explanation to a variety of Heidegger’s pronouncements on the nature of his discipline in seminars and public addresses, the essay stresses their ties to the phenomenological doctrine of Being and Time. My presentation spans four major theses: (1) Philosophy is actual in the practice of philosophizing, understood as an activity of intrinsic worth. (2) The essential procedure of philosophizing is clarification of experience. (3) The medium of philosophizing is conceptual knowledge. (4) The goal of philosophizing is non-conceptual: a “fundamental attunement.” Focusing on the apparent tension between (3) and (4), I argue that the structural relations between the conceptual and the non-conceptual elements in Heidegger’s metaphilosophy are best accounted for in terms of the duality of understanding (Verstehen) and being-attuned (Befindlichkeit) in the existential analytic. In conclusion, I suggest that the metaphilosophical vision this analysis yields is faithful to the existential promise of philosophy and provides the conceptual resources to defend its essential status as a mode of human realization.
References
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Richard Rojcewicz and Daniela Vallega-Neu. Indiana University Press. Heidegger, Martin (2014). “Phenomenological Interpretations with Respect to Aristotle: Indication of the Hermeneutical Situation” [1922]. Trans. Michael Baur. In Becoming Heidegger: On the Trail of his Early Occasional Writings 1910–1927, 2nd ed., ed. T.J. Kisiel and T. Sheehan, 144–79. Noesis Press.
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Taber, John (1983). Transformative Philosophy: A Study of Sankara, Fichte, and Heidegger. University of Hawaii Press.
Thomson, Iain D. (2011). Heidegger, Art, and Postmodernity. Cambridge University Press.
Bambach, Charles (2021). “Restraint.” In The Cambridge Heidegger Lexicon, ed. Mark A. Wrathall, 651–52. Cambridge University Press.
Batchelor, Martine (1996). “Meditation: Practice and Experience.” In The Psychology of Meditation: Research and Practice, ed. Michael A. West, 27–47. Oxford University Press. Carmody, James (1996). “Fish Discovering Water: Meditation as a Process of Recognition.” In The Psychology of Meditation: Research and Practice, ed. Michael A. West, 73–92. Oxford University Press.
Christopher, John Chambers (2018). “Let It Be: Mindfulness and Releasement —
Neglected Dimensions of Well-Being.” Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical
Psychology 38 (2): 61–76.
Crowe, Benjamin D (2006). Heidegger’s Religious Origins. Indiana University Press. Haar, Michel (1992). “Attunement and Thinking.” In Heidegger: A Critical Reader, ed.
Hubert L. Dreyfus and Harrison Hall, 159–72. Blackwell.
Hadot, Pierre (2020). The Selected Writings of Pierre Hadot: Philosophy as a Practice.
Ed. Arnold Davidson. Bloomsbury Academic.
Heidegger, Martin (1966). “Memorial Address” [1955]. In Discourse on Thinking, trans.
John M. Anderson and E. Hans Freund, 45–57. Harper and Row.
Heidegger, Martin (1979). Nietzsche Vol. 1: The Will to Power as Art [1936–37]. Trans.
David Farrel Krell. Harper and Row.
Heidegger, Martin (1984a). The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic [1928]. Trans.
Michael Heim. Indiana University Press.
Heidegger, Martin (1984b). Schelling’s Treatise on the Essence of Human Freedom
[1936]. Trans. Joan Stambaugh. Ohio University Press.
Heidegger, Martin (1992). “The Nature of Language” [1957–58]. In On the Way to
Language, trans. P.D. Hertz, 57–110. Harper and Row.
Heidegger, Martin (1994). Basic Questions of Philosophy: Selected “Problems” of “Logic”
[1938]. Trans. Richard Rojcewicz and Andre Schuwer. Indiana University Press. Heidegger, Martin (1995). The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude [1929–30]. Trans. William McNeill and Nicholas Walker. Indiana University Press.
Heidegger, Martin (1997). Phenomenological Interpretation of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason [1927–28]. Trans. Parvis Emad and Kenneth Maly. Indiana University Press. Heidegger, Martin (1998). “On the Essence of Ground” [1929]. In Pathmarks, trans.
Thomas Sheehan, 97–135. Cambridge University Press.
Heidegger, Martin (2001a). Phenomenological Interpretations of Aristotle: Initiation
into Phenomenological Research [1921–22]. Trans. Richard Rojcewicz. Indiana University Press.
Heidegger, Martin (2001). “Language” [1950]. In Poetry, Language, Thought, trans. Albert Hofstadter, 185–208. Harper & Row.
Heidegger, Martin (2002a). The Essence of Truth: On Plato’s Cave Allegory and Theaetetus [1931–32]. Trans. Ted Sadler. Continuum.
Heidegger, Martin (2002b). “The Origin of the Work of Art” [1935–36]. In Off the Beaten
Track, trans. Julian Young and Kenneth Haynes, 1–56. Cambridge University Press. Heidegger, Martin (2002c). Towards the Definition of Philosophy [1919]. Trans. Ted Sadler. Continuum.
Heidegger, Martin (2004). The Phenomenology of Religious Life [1920–21]. Trans.
Matthias Fritsch and Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei. Indiana University Press. Heidegger, Martin (2008). Being and Time [1927]. Trans. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
Heidegger, Martin (2010a). Being and Truth [1933–34]. Trans. Gregory Fried and Richard Polt. Indiana University Press.
Heidegger, Martin (2010b). Country Path Conversations [1944–45]. Trans. Bret W. Davis. Indiana University Press.
Heidegger, Martin (2012). Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event) [1938]. Trans.
Richard Rojcewicz and Daniela Vallega-Neu. Indiana University Press. Heidegger, Martin (2014). “Phenomenological Interpretations with Respect to Aristotle: Indication of the Hermeneutical Situation” [1922]. Trans. Michael Baur. In Becoming Heidegger: On the Trail of his Early Occasional Writings 1910–1927, 2nd ed., ed. T.J. Kisiel and T. Sheehan, 144–79. Noesis Press.
Jenkins, Nico (2018). Echoes of No Thing: Thinking Between Heidegger and Dōgen. Punctum Books.
Ma, Lin (2008). Heidegger on East-West Dialogue: Anticipating the Event. Routledge. Nelson, Eric S (2024) Heidegger and Dao: Things, Nothingness, Freedom. Bloomsbury Academic.
Nhat Hanh, Tich (1987). The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation. Trans. Mobi Ho. Beacon Press.
Plato, John M. Cooper, and D.S. Hutchinson (1997). Complete Works. Hacket. Ragland, C. P., and Sarah Heidt(Eds.) (2001) What is Philosophy? Yale University Press. Rayner, Timothy (2007). Foucault’s Heidegger: Philosophy and Transformative Experience. Continuum.
Slaby, Jan (2021). “Disposedness.” In The Cambridge Heidegger Lexicon, ed. M.A. Wrathall, 242–49. Cambridge University Press.
Taber, John (1983). Transformative Philosophy: A Study of Sankara, Fichte, and Heidegger. University of Hawaii Press.
Thomson, Iain D. (2011). Heidegger, Art, and Postmodernity. Cambridge University Press.
Published
2024-08-29
How to Cite
Shmugliakov, P. (2024). Heidegger’s Metaphilosophy: A New Reconstruction. Stasis, 12(1). Retrieved from https://stasisjournal.net/index.php/journal/article/view/267
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Articles
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