Scholarly consensus suggests that Heidegger's philosophical trajectory changed direction during the early 1930s. The central focus of his investigation shifted away from the "fundamental ontology" developed in his seminal early text Being and Time, which became crucial to post-World War II existentialist movements, toward what he termed Seinsgeschichte, or the "history of being." Heidegger sought to investigate how the fundamental concept of being itself, the very notion of what it means to exist, has undergone transformation across historical periods.
Heidegger's particular concern lay in identifying how being manifests meaning within contemporary technological civilization, an epoch characterized by unprecedented scientific breakthroughs, industrial expansion, and technological development, in which, as he observed via his admired poet Friedrich Hölderlin's language, "the gods have withdrawn from us." In Heidegger's analysis, the rise of modern technological systems has progressively constrained and depleted the possibilities for meaningful human existence, simultaneously weakening the capacity of artistic and poetic expression to reveal truth and create cultural significance.
This seminar examines the primary philosophical texts of Heidegger's later career, including "The Origin of the Work of Art," "The Question Concerning Technology," "The Age of the World Picture," "Why Poets?," "Plato's Doctrine of Truth," and "The Thing."
Throughout the course, we investigate central philosophical problems: What constitutes the essence of human nature in technological modernity? How should we understand the character of contemporary mathematical science and technological systems, and what types of knowledge do they generate and reveal? In a civilization increasingly dominated by scientific knowledge as the sole measure of truth, what becomes of the truths that artistic and poetic expression once offered to human culture? And what resources, if any, might enable us to maintain hope and grounds for resistance during our contemporary historical moment?
