For Work / Against Work
Debates on the centrality of work

References for Theme: Poetry, Language, Thought

  • Heidegger, Martin
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
      (p.109) [Extract from: What are Poets for?]-The whole objective inventory in terms  of  which  the  world  appears is given over to, commended to, and  thus  subjected to the command of self-assertive production. Willing  has in it the character of  command;  for purposeful  self-assertion  is a mode in which the attitude of the producing, and the  objective  character of the world,  concentrate  into  an  unconditional  and  therefore  complete  unity. In  this  self-concentration, the command character of the will announces itself. And  through  it  in the course  of  modern  metaphysics,  the  long-concealed  nature of the long-since existing will as the  Being of beings...
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
      (p.112) [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 ...
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
      (p.113) [Extract from: What are poets for?]-Among  those beings, plants and beasts, too, none  is  under  special  protection,  though  they  are  admitted into the  Open and secured in it. Man, on the other hand, as the being who wills him-self,  not  only  enjoys no  special  protection  from  the  whole of  beings, but rather is unshielded (line 13). As the one who proposes and produces, he  stands  before  the  obstructed  Open. He  himself  and his things are thereby exposed to the growing danger of turning into  mere  material  and into a function  of objectification. The  design of self-assertion  itself extends the  realm...
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
      (p.158) [Extract from: Building, Dwelling, Thinking  ]-We are attempting to trace in thought the nature  of dwelling. The next step on this path would be the question: what is the state of dwelling in our precarious  age? On all sides we hear talk  about  the housing shortage, and with good reason. Nor is there just talk; there is action too. We try to fill the need by providing houses, by promoting  the  building  of  houses, planning the whole  architectural enterprise. However hard and bitter, however hampering and threatening  the  lack of houses remains, the real plight of dwelling does not lie merely...
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
      (p.158) [Extract from: Building, Dwelling, Thinking  ]-We are attempting to trace in thought the nature  of dwelling. The next step on this path would be the question: what is the state of dwelling in our precarious  age? On all sides we hear talk  about  the housing shortage, and with good reason. Nor is there just talk; there is action too. We try to fill the need by providing houses, by promoting  the  building  of  houses, planning the whole  architectural enterprise. However hard and bitter, however hampering and threatening  the  lack of houses remains, the real plight of dwelling does not lie merely...
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
      (p.180) [Extract from: The Thing]-Men alone, as mortals, by dwelling attain to the world as world. Only what conjoins itself out of world becomes a thing. 
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
      (p.28) [Extract from: The Origin of the Work of Art]-A piece of equipment, a pair  of shoes for instance, when finished, is also self-contained like the mere  thing, but it does not have the  character  of  having  taken shape by itself like the granite boulder. On the other hand, equipment displays  an  affinity  with  the  art  work insofar  as  it  is  something  produced  by the  human  hand. However, by  its  self-sufficient  presence the work  of  art  is  similar rather to the mere thing which has taken shape by itself and is self-contained. Nevertheless we do not count such works among mere ...
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
      (p.33) [Extract from: The Origin of the work of Art]-From  the  dark opening  of the  worn  insides of the  shoes  the  toilsome  tread of  the  worker  stares  forth.  In  the  stiffly  rugged  heaviness of the shoes there is the accumulated tenacity of her slow trudge through the far-spreading  and ever-uniform  furrows of the field swept  by a  raw wind.  On  the  leather  lie  the  dampness  and  richness  of  the  soil.  Under  the  soles  slides  the  loneliness  of  the  field-path  as evening  falls.  In  the  shoes  vibrates  the  silent  call  of  the  earth, its  quiet  gift  of  the  ripening  grain  and  its ...
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
      (p.57) [Extract from: The Origin of the work of Art]-We think  of  creation  as  a bringing  forth.  But  the  making  of  equipment, too, is a bringing forth.  Handicraft—a  remarkable play of  language—does  not,  to  be  sure,  create  works, not  even  when  we  contrast,  as we must, the  handmade with the  factory product. But  what  is  it  that  distinguishes  bringing  forth  as  creation from bringing  forth  in  the  mode  of  making?  It  is  as  difficult  to  track  down the  essential  features of the  creation of works and the  making of equipment  as it  is easy to  distinguish  verbally between  the  two  modes  of ...
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
      (p.62) [Extract from: The Origin of the work of Art]-In the creation of a work [of Art], the conflict, as rift, must be set back into  the earth, and the earth itself must  be set forth  and used  as  the  self-closing  factor.  This use, however, does not use up or mis-use the earth  as matter, but rather  sets it free to benothing but itself. This use of the earth is a working with  it that, to  be sure, looks like the employment of matter in handicraft. Hence the appearance  that artistic creation  is also an activity of handicraft.  It  never is....
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
      (p.83) [Extract from: The Origin of the Work of Art]-In accordance with what has so far been explained, the meaning of the noun "Ge-Stell" frame, framing, framework, used on page 62, is thus defined: the gathering of the bringing-forth, of the letting-come-forth-here  into the rift-design as bounding outline (peras). The Greek sense of morphe as figure, Gestalt, is made clear by "Ge-Stell," "framing," so understood. Now the word "Ge-Stell," frame, which  we  used  in  later writings  as the explicit key expression for the  nature of modern technology, was indeed conceived in reference to that sense of frame (not in reference to...
    • Poetry, Language, Thought (1971)
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