Martin Heidegger believed that the Western philosophical culture created an abstract vision of what being is. He attempted to deconstruct the standing philosophical tradition and reconnect with pre-Socratic roots, yet in his earliest work Being and Time he ended up writing into the same tradition that he so wanted to analyze and expose, to subvert its apparent significance. At this point it became apparent to him that he would need to make an extreme move if he wished to escape philosophical tradition and metaphysics - this is when Heidegger "moved toward a meditative and poetic stance"(124).
In his later works, Heidegger starts to find that "resoluteness" connotes a role that is more passive than active. In Being and Time, Heidegger describes how to live authentically: "being authentic is being-toward-death. This is not a negativism but a resolute facing up to one's temporality. Only through such 'resoluteness' can one become authentic" (123). The "resoluteness" is defined by Dasein, by being casted into the world towards death. However, once Heidegger turns, he claims that rather than being thrown into the world, one should wait patiently and openly for Being to freely bring itself upon oneself, such as it does when one experiences an artwork. It is noted that this form of waiting is non-subjective - rather than waiting for something and wanting it to come, one waits upon it selflessly and with no sense of desire. It is also not passive waiting - it is simply "releasement" and allowing something to expose itself (125). He maintains that instead of willing something this exposure to happen, "one must learn to think in a way that is responsive" - Western thinking men, he wrote, have forgotten to do just this(124).
In his essay, "The Origin of the Work of Art," Heidegger begins by defining the artist as the origin of the art work, and the art work as the origin of the artist. He adds, however, that there is a 3rd element on which both are also dependent and that is the art itself. Heidegger describes art as the "higher reality" and claims that therefore "the question of the origin of the work of art is really a question concerning the nature of art"(126).
He then questions the thinglyness of art, and inquires if it's thingyless is like the thinglyness of all other things. He explores 3 common "thing-theories" but ultimately rejects each one based upon its ambiguity, distance, and inability to allow the things to show themselves. When exploring the third theory, "the thing as formed matter," Heidegger states that "the thingly element is the matter or work material upon which the artist works. He works upon the matter by giving it a form"(126,127). In this way, the thinglyness of art is different from that of other things, which can be results of accidents or nature. At this point, Heidegger begins to explore the nature of equipment, whos "matter and form are based on their use"(127). The way to understand equipment therefore is when it is in its truest form, being fully utilized. Through the example of Van Gogh's "Les Souliers," Heidegger describes how a piece of equipment such as shoes can solidify the outside world in them. He sees the existence of the women who wears them through the art work; we see that the shoes are reliable and a part of their owner's cultural world - in this, the art work reveals "the Being of equipment"(129). What are the shoes in truth? For Heidegger, the art work establishes this through revelation of being. The truth is not how close the shoes resemble a real pair of shoes, but it is something (previously hidden) that emerges from the work of art. Human feelings and existence that the real life owner of the shoes would not notice then come to life in virtual forms in the painting.
A work of art, whether it is representative of something real or not, is built out of two elements. The first, the earth, is made up of the primary or fundamental work materials and thingly characteristics that one finds when he steps back to view the work - these are ever-emerging and exploding with possibilities. The second, the world of the artist, "transforms the composer's world into symbolic form" in dynamic and emerging ways (since the world itself is constantly changing as ones views and values change) that essentially make the work of art, work(132). For Heidegger, nothing about art is static - it "emerges and unfolds in our experience of it"(132).
The relationship between the earth and the world is henceforth compared to the relationship between existing reality and Being. The earth, like existing reality, is concealing and ordinary until it is exemplified by and viewed in the context of a broader ontological world which "thrusts the earth out into the open"; only then do the earth and existing reality become more than what they physically are and only then can the artist/man transcend mentally and have the potential be open to the world/Being (134).
In the case of a painting of a Greek temple, the art work gives the cultural world of ancient Greece durability and liveliness. Heidegger claims that the ancient Greek world "remains open in the open expanse or world that has been set into the temple"(135). Yet what does it mean to be "open"? Heidegger maintains that the ideational world is open, and that in order for a work to be a work it must be open; "the open character of the work allows for the 'portico' through which we are transported" back into the life world of the artist(135). The art work inherently presents the space for the cultural world to dwell.
An example concerning the same Greek temple is given to help one understand the earth more comprehensively. Ferrara puts you in the position of a person walking to the Greek temple. He suggests that you kick a stone while walking toward the temple, and then take a rest on a stone bench, before arriving and marveling at the beauty of the stone temple. He claims these three stone objects to be made of the same material, though the first is only a mere thing, an accidental piece of earth, that you discarded, and the second is something that "used up" the stone material to be useful and to service man - the stone had become imperceptible in its functionality. The third stone however, possessed an extra quality, the "ontological world of the historical people that surrounded and lived through that work" was set into the earth (137). Heidegger concludes that only through this relationship is the earth able to show itself and move into the open world as it simultaneously grounds the world in its own eternal nature. Here, a continuous strife is manifested, an "opening-concealing dynamic within the work of art" (137). This is how truth emerges and can be defined as the nature of the work of art. To Heidegger, however, the art's truth is all reliant not only upon its creator and these elements, but upon the appreciator and how he/she preserves the work of art by understanding the work. As Ferrara states, "Only if the appreciator allows the work to show itself as the struggle of earth and world can truth happen in the work"(139). In this sense, truth is as dynamic as the art itself.
The text is concluded with Heideggers beliefs on art and history. He believes that "art is a place in which momentous historical activities and occurrences take place"(140). Heidegger concludes by commenting on the historical nature of both being and art, and human understanding in relation to one's onto-historical world.
REACTION
Wow. Once again, an extremely dense read but this chapter really clarified a lot for me. (Please correct me if I misinterpreted parts of the text). Ferrara's explanation of Heidegger's essay took me on a journey with Heidegger and showed me the ways in which he explored and often dismissed standing concepts such as the 3 thing-theories. Overall, though still slightly unclear about the concept of "Dasein," I now feel much more satisfied with my knowledge of Heidegger's philosophical concepts after reading through Chapter V. Ferrara had a lot of interesting insight that complemented Heidegger's concepts, as well, and it was great to read this chapter after hearing his lectures in class this week. One part of the text that I especially enjoyed was the example with the stone, the bench, and the temple. It was such a vivid and common image that it helped to clarify these complex philosophical concepts. I wish these types of analogies occurred in all of the texts! Additionally, towards the end I began to feel that Heidegger's essay on art was truly pointing towards some larger concepts having to do with history, being, and time. I can't say what those are for sure, but I felt the implicit move away from art in the final sentences.
