For Work / Against Work
Debates on the centrality of work

Poetry, Language, Thought

by Heidegger, Martin (1971)

Abstract

Poetry, Language, Thought collects Martin Heidegger's pivotal writings on art, its role in human life and culture, and its relationship to thinking and truth. Essential reading for students and anyone interested in the great philosophers, this book opens up appreciation of Heidegger beyond the study of philosophy to the reaches of poetry and our fundamental relationship to the world. Featuring "The Origin of the Work of Art," a milestone in Heidegger's canon, this enduring volume provides potent, accessible entry to one of the most brilliant thinkers of modern times.

Key Passage

[Extract from: What are poets for? This extract in particular is discussing Rilke's poetry and emerges from a discussion on 'Americanism']-In  place  of  all the  world-content  of things  that  was  formerly  perceived  and used to grant freely of itself,  the  object-character  of technological  dominion  spreads  itself over the earth ever more quickly,  ruthlessly,  and  completely.  Not only does it establish all things as producible in the process of production; it also delivers the products  of  production  by  means  of  the  market. In  self-assertive  production, the  humanness  of  man  and  the  thingness  of  things  dissolve  into  the  calculated  market  value of  a market  which  not  only spans the whole earth  as a world market, but  also, as the will to  will, trades  in  the nature  of Being  and thus  subjects all beings to the  trade of a calculation that dominates most tenaciously in those areas where there is no need of numbers. (p.112)

Keywords

Poetry, Heidegger, Art, Aesthetics, Culture, Artwork, Artist, Poetry, Twentieth Century

Themes

What Are Poets For? [1946], Poetry, Language, Thought, Heidegger Citations

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