Constituting World Heidegger's Path to an Ontological Understanding of Language

Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Flakne, April

Keywords

Heidegger, Martin, Language, Ontological, Ontology

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

The works of Martin Heidegger are often divided into the pre- and post-turn writings, with the latter seen by many critics as exhibiting an unacceptable reification of language. The aim of this thesis is to trace a continuity between the pre- and post-turn writings on language as well as to defend the later writings from such critics. It is my position that Heidegger's magnum opus, Being and Time, contains certain problems, contradictions, and vacillations that necessitate and lay the groundwork for his 'turn', in which an ontological understanding of language is clarified. I take such clarification to be illustrated in such works as 'The Letter on Humanism', 'The Origin of the Work of Art', and 'Language'. Having drawn the connection between Being and Time and the later works, I defend the ontological understanding of language, as it is the dimension of language which is responsible for world-constitution, as well as the dimension that connects to the artistic and literary pursuits of human beings. I defend Heidegger's ontological understanding of language from Richard Rorty's claim that it is a reification of language. I also defend such an understanding of language from the analytic concerns presented by Cristina Lafont, most notably, the concern that in Heidegger's works on language, meaning is determinative of reference.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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