Heidegger

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Jan 9, 2024

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Diego Araya Dr. West Gurley Aesthetics March 10, 2016 Heidegger (Change title later) In The Origin of the Work of Art it takes some time for Martin Heidegger to establish concrete definitions as to what is art. Once reached, however, Heidegger slowly, surely, and almost implacably tells the reader that art is nothing less than the “unconcealing” of Truth itself, a way in “which truth comes into being…”. 1 Art is far from a commodity or a simple good to be crafted, created, traded, sold, or auctioned off to the highest bidder for the sake of residing idly, accumulating further value for the buyer. Instead, art moves beyond the realm of simple object and exists as an organic entity, more verb than noun. It intertwines with Nature, Truth, Reality and Beauty, interconnecting these seemingly separate notions. Heidegger states, “Beauty is one way in which truth occurs as unconcealedness”. 2 The unconcealed truth, aletheia , is what art aims to present to the world. Reality as it is, uncompromised and benevolently indifferent to our prejudices. 3 Upon doing so, “beautiful” art is unconcealing Reality, showing us Truth as it is, never as it ought to be. 4 Reality is Truth, and furthermore is the Nature of what is being unconcealed. 5 Following the 1 Pg. 75 2 Pg. 54 3 This is the part in class where I would likely say “objective reality”. 4 68 5 53
Diego Araya Dr. West Gurley Aesthetics March 10, 2016 circularity of Heidegger’s writing, wherein he establishes that not only is artist the origin of the artwork, but the artwork the origin the of the artist and art the origin of both, Nature, Truth, Reality, and Beauty seem to be connected in an endless circle. If we establish philosophy as one large conversation with a chorus of voices refuting, debating, and building off one another, the chain of thought leading to Heidegger’s part in this dialogue seems directly preceded by Kant, Schopenhauer, and Hegel. Interestingly, there is a correlation between Leo Tolstoy and Heidegger, though it seems unlikely they arrived at this point through similar reasoning. Tolstoy’s envisioning of art as pivotal to understanding emotion and establishing empathy bears stronger similarities than might initially appear, with a Heideggerian view of art being an elaboration upon the intellectually simplistic and straightforward Tolstoyan view. 6 Both perceive art as a means to understand truth, but for Tolstoy, human experience is that Truth. Art as the great unconcealer erodes away at the unsayable, revealing the Nature and Reality of seemingly disparate experiences. Here, human experience is Reality, however diminutive on the scale of the cosmos and the Universe. Yet each singular human experience, or emotion as Tolstoy would specify, forms a 6 I mean that in the absolute kindest way towards Tolstoy; I disagree with aspects of his thinking, but I understand it. This is also obviously not in any way criticizing Tolstoy as intellectually simplistic himself, War and Peace will never cease to intimidate me and Anna Karenina illustrates his ideal of art as emotional communication beautifully.
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