about martin heidegger and the language.docx

8/18/2019 About Martin Heidegger and the Language.docx

1/9

By Irina Ranneva

If we look at history of linguistics we may found that none of linguists was as

reverential to language as much as Heidegger was. During our course we had

different bright philosophers as Kierkegaard, iet!sche, "artre and #amus but noneof them came even that close to the mystery of $anguage as a possible part of

Being%&od. 'ven though among those authors was a talented linguist, he used

language only as a tool of his own theory proving not giving a floor to $anguage

itself. (o speak for itself. "o, because language was not a fruitful topic for the rest of

e)istentialists I would like to concentrate on *artin Heidegger+s percept of the

language. f course, my essay is very brief and general because the material is

enormous and might not be fully understood by me even after years. But I hope, I

have e)pressed here my own thoughts and impressions -at least, partly after reading

Heidegger+s works.

Writing on the margins. About Martin Heidegger and Language.

/In the beginning was the 0ord, and the 0ord was with &od, and the 0ord was &od.

He was with &od in the beginning.

(hrough him all things were made1 without him nothing was made that has been made.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

&ospel of 2ohn -2ohn /3/45

Heidegger argued that in Being and Time he depictured *an in his relation to

Being not to &od. 6s a person of 'astern #hristian traditions, I saw no crucial

difference between Being and &od. If we do not personali!e &od and perceive him as

a pure Being, we can easily replace Dasein in Hedegger+s works by 7&od+ with no

change of meaning. (hen, considering &od is $ogos -I+d prefer the &reek word here

because it is more meaningful as a concept we can say as well that Dasein is $ogos

and, therefore, a $anguage in its entirety/

.1 This works vice versa as well; If Dasein is Logos and Logos is God then it might be

said that Dasein is God, this logical chain is too simple and doubtful though. This

works onl because the line !In the beginning was the "ord, and the "ord was with


2/9

Here I+d like to go a little back to the end of /8 th and the beginning to the /9 th

century and remember one influential figure of that times : 0ilhelm von Humboldt a

;russian philosopher and a linguist. He understood language as a ma


3/9

n normal life we ma!e language wor! in a provisional way, because we signify "ust

superficial relations. #s soon as we spea! of deeper relationships, there comes up

suddenly another language, that of the poetical. -Heidegger /9>?

0hy does Heidegger appeal here to &oethe@ 0hy was poetry and poetic

language that relevant for Heidegger@ 6ccording to him, Dasein is tuned by certain

moods1 these moods affect Dasein+s modes of philosophi!ing in its fundamentally4

ontological way. Aor Heidegger these moods are an inseparable part of thinking and

of Dasein itself. *ood 7assails us+ in our unreflecting devotion to the world. 6 mood

comes neither from the 7outside+ nor from the 7inside+ but arises from being4in4the4

world. ;oets and artists are the most sensitive to the "timme and are able to reach

highest philosophical 'piphany. Heidegger believed philosophers and artists are two

types of people on the same height but following different paths. (heir ideas

originated in one and the same Dasein but they move along different tra5. &ie 'prache spricht.

$anguage spea!s -Heidegger ??/3 /88. 6nd it speaks itself. 0e


4/9

an inseparable union of form and meaning -comparing to structuralists+ thinking. He

is trying to change our relation to language, to make us re4thinking the e)istence

through the language, because it is how we attune ourselves to the Being1 he deny the

instrumentalist view on the language when language is


5/9

essences, a kind of its other4"ein manifestation1 they both have their own individual

characteristics, they are interconnected, coincide with each other but are not

converted into each other, do not generate each other and, finally, are not

hierarchically arranged -echo of the Kant+s antinomy@. "o, language is presented in a

binary opposition of its e)istence 4 poetici!ing speech and 0ord and its own7otherness+ =uietness, silence. "peech comes before silence. 6nd only after something

being said comes the "ilence. (he phenomenon of silence, being the basis of speech,

varies the idea of nothingness which is the basis of everything. "o, in its unity

language is at one and the same time Being and othing, 6lpha and mega, the great

$ogos. Here, is worth mentioning the idea of "igetik -teological doctrine of silence1

the idea of "ilence, that turns to be the basis of speech, on unconscious level implies

compulsory connotations of #hristian ascetic and meditative practices.

Heidegger continued to develop these topics in his later works as well. In his

conceptuali!ation of the phenomenon of language he kept to further ontologi!ation

and revelation of a general sacral -not in a religious but more poetic sense basis both

for Being and $anguage. Here, different intuitions are e)pressed and intertwined. 6s

well as before, Heidegger developed the idea of poetici!ing speech not only as anauthentic utterance of Being but also as a true measure of a human life. (he

7directness+ of a poetic utterance is contrasted with 7indirectness+ of a rational

language that deals with ob/. 6n utterance about something makes the e)istential unity

break up into binary opposition of an ob


6/9

completed reali!ation. n the other hand, the Being itself speaks through human

phenomenologically revealing itself in the word. *oreover, this duality 4 in

comparison with the sub


7/9

with &od and Human as His creation made in the image and likeness of Himself,

Heidegger+s mono4 and dialogical system of $anguage and Being discovers new

depths. It is also important to note that, according to Heidegger, the man has no e=ual

interlocutors in the natural Being dimension. 6t the same time, Heidegger writes

about a variety of speakers and distinguishes speaking to each other -or one withanother and self4talk. However, the described varieties of dialogues still reveal their

deep monologic basis. (hus, the topic of intersub It is, in fact, the only way of true life on the 'arth 4 people e)ist only

poetically. HeideggerJs interpretation of the specificity of the poetic genre re=uires, of

course, a separate review1 here, it is necessary to note the following3

4 Heidegger does not refer 7poetic+ to purely technical, ac=uired and perfected skill of

producing rhymed lines1 it has an ecstatic nature of the testimony and is turned to the

sacral spheres.

4 He also made an important link between Being, phenomenon of life and language.

(hey are not identical, but are closely related. Human life is enrooted : or, at least,

has to be enrooted 4 in a particular place, place of its blood to which it is relatively

connected. It should have a topos of Home or *otherland. 6nd this is enrooted in

language itself, in the national language saving by tradition and poetry. Heidegger

called language 7the house of Being + -Heidegger /9C/3 >5 acclaiming it a

phenomenon in its generic terms. It receives its real, natural e)istence in the form of

local and national language forms1 a living language is the habitation and, at the sametime, factor defining the Being of a nation -recalling back to the Humboldt+s ideas.

(he national language is constructed by its regional dialects and supports and

6 The problem of dialogue as a basis of the men &eing was later widel developed in

the works of :ussian philologist, semiotician and philosopher ikhail &akhtin.

8 It is also worth mentioning that alread in 1016 :ussian


8/9

conveys the most important topics which are the basis of the national life : the

concept and percept of &od-s, *otherland and HomeC.

$anguage that is a part of one and the same antinomy with speech -and it still

remains unidentified with it is regarded as a 7house of Being + which is settled by the

Being itself. It should be noted that Heidegger reproduced here his old idea of the

relations between personal and impersonal in spiritual creativity 4 the greater is the

artist the more his identity is dissolving in his work.

$anguage seems to be a general ability of a human being but it his intentions of

self4constructing and development throughout the human history. Basically, it

depends on the pulse of Being. It is connected with the e)plication of historicity3 the

life of the word reali!es itself in its own theurgic action -'vent and at the same time

it is involved into the chrono discourse of circumstances. Heidegger saw the prospect

of the further philosophical research about language in this direction. If we try to

make a research only within the frames of the own features of language is

unavoidably limited.

(hus, it can be said that Heidegger opened a new path of studying language for

different scholars : from linguists and philologists to philosophers1 Heidegger

rethought and developed previous ways of perceiving language and using it only in

terms of a tool and enriched it with an unlimited power, transmade it from a humble

human ability into almighty vessel of everything+s and everyone+s Being.

> $ere, we can also see the in?uence of German :omanticism.


9/9

References.

Kelly, "ean D. -??/. The 1elevance of -henomenology to the -hilosophy of

$anguage and 2ind. 3 &arland ;ublishing.

Dahlstorm, Daniel . -?/5. HeideggerJs ontological 6nalysis of $anguage. In

%eidegger and $anguage ed. 2effrey ;owell Bloomington3 Indiana niversity ;ress.

Heidegger, *. -/9E9. $etter on 3%umanism4. Retrieved from

http3%%wagner.edu%psychology%files%?/5%?/%Heidegger4$etter4n4Humanism4

(ranslation4&R(H.pdf

Heidegger, *. -/9F8. (hat is -hilosophy) $ondon3 Gision.

Heidegger, *. -/9>?. Gideo interview. Heidegger speaks. ;art /. 'nglish subtitled

by *arcus "emm. Retrieved from https3%%www.youtube.com%watch@

vL9Mv!EnNcs

Heidegger, *. -/9C/. -oetry, $anguage, Thought. 3 Harper#ollins ;ublishers.

Heidegger, *. -/98. 5n the (ay to language. 3 Harber O Row.

Heidegger, *. -/99>. Being and Time. 3 "tate niversity of ew ork ;ress.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_vYz4nQUcshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_vYz4nQUcshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_vYz4nQUcshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_vYz4nQUcs

about martin heidegger and the language.docx

Documents