Martin Heidegger, Joan Stambaugh The End Of Philosophy

Martin Heidegger, Joan Stambaugh The End Of Philosophy

Author: Martin Heidegger

Year: 1910

Philosophy as Metaphysics Heidegger sees the entire history of philosophy—from Plato and Aristotle through Descartes, Kant, and Nietzsche—as the history of metaphysics. Metaphysics, for him, is the attempt to explain beings (things, entities) by grounding them in some ultimate principle (e.g., Plato’s Ideas, Descartes’ Cogito, Kant’s Transcendental Subject). This tradition, he argues, has exhausted itself. Nietzsche’s proclamation of the “death of God” and his metaphysics of the will to power mark the completion of this trajectory. By “end,” Heidegger doesn’t mean philosophy is useless or irrelevant. He means it has reached its completion—its inner possibilities have been played out. Philosophy has become “science” in the modern sense: calculative, technical, and oriented toward mastery of beings rather than questioning the meaning of Being itself. Heidegger calls for an Überwindung der Metaphysik (“overcoming of metaphysics”). This doesn’t mean rejecting philosophy but moving into a new mode of thought that listens to the truth of Being rather than trying to dominate or represent it. He contrasts “representational thinking” (which objectifies) with “meditative thinking” (which let