Heidegger Citations
• What Are Poets For? [1946]

References for Theme: What Are Poets For? [1946]

• 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...