On the Essence of Language and the Question of Art

"This volume invites us to follow Heidegger as he thinks on paper and to join in his explorations of being, language, and art. Adam Knowles' thoughtful translation conveys the dogged inventiveness of these texts." Richard Polt, Xavier University "These starkly polysemic notes on language, poetry, and art dramatically elaborate Heidegger's later phenomenological understanding of how poetry gives rise to both art and language, how that emergence gets disastrously eclipsed and forgotten by Western metaphysics, and what it means to rediscover being's poetic emergence today. Here Heidegger finally thinks clearly through the distinction between 'the being of entities' (or 'beingness,' the domain of metaphysics) and 'beyng' (or 'being as such,' the heart of the matter for poetic thinking), that crucial distinction which both destroys the early 'metaphysical' project of Being and Time and launches his later work of thinking beyond metaphysics (and the nihilistic history metaphysics underwrites)." Professor Iain Thomson, University of New Mexico

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century and the author of numerous works including Being and Time.

Translators Introduction Part One: On the Essence of Language The Saga 1. The Resolution 2. The Characteristics of the Decision 3. The Question of Being 4. The Question of Being (The First and the Other Inception) 5. The Two Leaps in the Attempt to Think Being 6. The Three Insights and Knowledge 7. Beyng, Spirit, Cognition 8. The Saga 9. The Beyng-Historical Inception 10. The History of Beyng 11. The History of Philosophy and the History of Being 12. Beyng-Historical Thinking 13. Steadfastness and Thinking 14. The Concept Distancing Naysaying 15. The No of Beyng-Historical Thinking 16. Naysaying and Questioning 17. The Word 18. Beyng and Word 19. Beyng as the Appropriating Event (The Human) 20. Beyng and Attunement 21. Beyng 22. The Nothing and Beyng 23. Beyng as Nothing 24. The Nothing 25. The Event of Appropriation 26. Event of Appropriation 27. Beyng 28. Beyng, God, the Human 29. Beyng 30. Beyng is and only Beyng Is 31. Abyssal Ground 32. Beyng 33. The More Inceptual Saga 34. The Untenability of the Differentiation between Being and Becoming 35. Truth and System 36. The Attunement of the Voice Determines 37. Where is a Measure? 38. Not What is Coming 39. What Are We To Do 40. Not a New Philosophy 41. Where Do We Stand? Directed Toward the History of Beyng 42. A Curious Delusion of this Age 43. Steadfastness and Duty 44. The Saga 45. The Crux of the Error 46. Time-Space (cf. Contributions, Grounding) 47. The Temporalization of Time 48. Time-Space The Word. On the Essence of Language The Quickening Element of the Word The Birth of Language The Beginning The Unique Element Addenda Word Sign Conversation Language I. The Word and Language II. The Sign (Its Essence Bound to the Event) III. The Word. Conversation and Language IV. The Word (CF. Poetizing and Thinking) V. The Word and Language VI. Word and Language VII. The Essential Prevailing of the Word VIII. Image and Sound The Sensible IX. Language X. Language On Eduard Mrikes Poems September Morning and At Midnight ADDENDA Image and Word Part Two: On the Question of Art On the Question of Art Art and Space The Work of Art and Art History Reflection upon the Essence and Conduct of the Art-Historical Science Editors Afterword Glossaries EnglishGerman GermanEnglish