Michael Eldred writes:
>I'd like to draw attention to a central formulation in 'On the Origin of the
>Work of Art' to then put it into relation with what has recently been
>discussed
>concerning getting over/overcoming/twisting metaphysics. The 'formula':
>
>"Art is truth's being set into the work." ("Die Kunst ist das Ins-Werk-Setzen
>der Wahrheit.")
This is indeed the keystone of the essay, and Heidegger's subsequent charge
that this is essentially ambiguous should be heeded, as the genitive 'der
Wahrheit' is double: truth being set into work by the artist (the
prevailing account of aesthetics) and truth setting itself in the work
(hence the thematics of Unverborgenheit ensue). But in the 1956 afterword
to the Reklam edition, Heidegger writes that this claim leads to a
'distressing difficulty': "In the heading 'the setting-into-work of truth',
in which it remains undecided but decidable who does the setting or in what
way it occurs, there is concealed *the relation of Being and human being*,
a relation which is unsuitably conceived even in this version" (Hofstadter
translation). The metaphysics of subjecticity and the history of Beyng had
not yet been adequately encountered or thought through in 1936.
>But where does this leave art and the artwork, post-metaphysically? How can
>artworks still be created which come to presence and stand in themselves? Do
>artworks now become untrue in this post-metaphysical essencing of truth as the
>self-concealment of beyng?
[snip]
>In particular, in turning-away from standing presence as the sense of beyng,
>the
>dogma that poetry -- its language drafting a world by calling beings to stand
>in
>presence -- is the primary artform can be broken with. In attuning humankind
>to
>the moods of beyng, it could well be that music takes on the leading role in
>current transitional epoch of turning away and stepping back from
>standingness.
>Could it be that another music could put humankind into the mood for another
>beginning? Could another music put the truth (unconcealedness) of
>self-concealment of beyng into the artwork by not coming to stand? This would
>require turning away from the essence of techne: the fore-seeing of the idea.
>
>For such a turn of (the) event, Heidegger's Hoelderlin would become redundant.
>He would fall by the wayside. And the virile strains that worry Tom Blancato
>would be doused in a softer mood.
In this context I will mention Heidegger's 1967 Athens lecture, "Die
Herkunft der Kunst und die Bestimmung des Denkens" (in _Distanz und Naehe:
Reflexionen und Analysen zur Kunst der Gegenwart_, hrsg. v. Petra Jaeger u.
Rudolf Luethe, 1983; there is a French translation in M. Haar's _Cahier de
l'Herne_ dedicated to Heid.). "Only here in Greece, where the totality of
the world addressed itself as physis to man and took him into its claim,
could human apprehension and action co-respond to this claim", namely, by
bringing the claim of physis into the work's presence. "Physis und techne
gehoeren auf eine geheimnisvolle Weise zusammen".
But this statement, "Only here in Greece", Nur hier in Hellas, must be read
rigorously; the world of the Greeks has evanesced; modernity is now under
the sway of cybernetics, such that human being can no longer co-respond to
the essence of art -- such is the gist of section II of this essay. Heid's
advice for those who wish to twist-free / step outside of the sway of
cybernetic / calculative thinking, the tyranny of scientific method? Step
back into the incipience of thinking, towards what had to necessarily
remain unthought, namely, a-letheia, Ent-bergung. (I'll withhold my
thoughts on the important transition from Unverborgenheit to Entbergung at
this juncture). In this way the essence of the artwork can be thought as
essentially self-concealing -- and "als das Sichverbergende [wachruft] die
Scheu ... im Menschen": awakens awe, wonder. The moodedness to which you
refer, Michael, is of paramount importance in this passage into Scheu. And
Hoelderlin cannot be so swiftly discounted in this passage -- in his essay
and lecture-course on Hoelderlin's "Andenken", Heidegger dwells on the
line, "Manches traegt Scheu / an die Quelle zu gehen". Importantly, the
1967 lecture abstains from exaggerating or aggrandizing poetry; Heidegger
simply refers to 'the work'. Which would certainly leave room for music
(Heid's own remarks on music are relatively unhelpful -- though he says
something interesting about Stravinsky in GA13). Also for sculpture, as the
brief essay "Art and Space" demonstrates.
A long response to a longer post ... but seit ein Gespraech sind wir...
(Though I think your shots at Derrida are rather flippant; topic for
another time).
Cheers,
Paul N. Murphy
University of Toronto
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>I'd like to draw attention to a central formulation in 'On the Origin of the
>Work of Art' to then put it into relation with what has recently been
>discussed
>concerning getting over/overcoming/twisting metaphysics. The 'formula':
>
>"Art is truth's being set into the work." ("Die Kunst ist das Ins-Werk-Setzen
>der Wahrheit.")
This is indeed the keystone of the essay, and Heidegger's subsequent charge
that this is essentially ambiguous should be heeded, as the genitive 'der
Wahrheit' is double: truth being set into work by the artist (the
prevailing account of aesthetics) and truth setting itself in the work
(hence the thematics of Unverborgenheit ensue). But in the 1956 afterword
to the Reklam edition, Heidegger writes that this claim leads to a
'distressing difficulty': "In the heading 'the setting-into-work of truth',
in which it remains undecided but decidable who does the setting or in what
way it occurs, there is concealed *the relation of Being and human being*,
a relation which is unsuitably conceived even in this version" (Hofstadter
translation). The metaphysics of subjecticity and the history of Beyng had
not yet been adequately encountered or thought through in 1936.
>But where does this leave art and the artwork, post-metaphysically? How can
>artworks still be created which come to presence and stand in themselves? Do
>artworks now become untrue in this post-metaphysical essencing of truth as the
>self-concealment of beyng?
[snip]
>In particular, in turning-away from standing presence as the sense of beyng,
>the
>dogma that poetry -- its language drafting a world by calling beings to stand
>in
>presence -- is the primary artform can be broken with. In attuning humankind
>to
>the moods of beyng, it could well be that music takes on the leading role in
>current transitional epoch of turning away and stepping back from
>standingness.
>Could it be that another music could put humankind into the mood for another
>beginning? Could another music put the truth (unconcealedness) of
>self-concealment of beyng into the artwork by not coming to stand? This would
>require turning away from the essence of techne: the fore-seeing of the idea.
>
>For such a turn of (the) event, Heidegger's Hoelderlin would become redundant.
>He would fall by the wayside. And the virile strains that worry Tom Blancato
>would be doused in a softer mood.
In this context I will mention Heidegger's 1967 Athens lecture, "Die
Herkunft der Kunst und die Bestimmung des Denkens" (in _Distanz und Naehe:
Reflexionen und Analysen zur Kunst der Gegenwart_, hrsg. v. Petra Jaeger u.
Rudolf Luethe, 1983; there is a French translation in M. Haar's _Cahier de
l'Herne_ dedicated to Heid.). "Only here in Greece, where the totality of
the world addressed itself as physis to man and took him into its claim,
could human apprehension and action co-respond to this claim", namely, by
bringing the claim of physis into the work's presence. "Physis und techne
gehoeren auf eine geheimnisvolle Weise zusammen".
But this statement, "Only here in Greece", Nur hier in Hellas, must be read
rigorously; the world of the Greeks has evanesced; modernity is now under
the sway of cybernetics, such that human being can no longer co-respond to
the essence of art -- such is the gist of section II of this essay. Heid's
advice for those who wish to twist-free / step outside of the sway of
cybernetic / calculative thinking, the tyranny of scientific method? Step
back into the incipience of thinking, towards what had to necessarily
remain unthought, namely, a-letheia, Ent-bergung. (I'll withhold my
thoughts on the important transition from Unverborgenheit to Entbergung at
this juncture). In this way the essence of the artwork can be thought as
essentially self-concealing -- and "als das Sichverbergende [wachruft] die
Scheu ... im Menschen": awakens awe, wonder. The moodedness to which you
refer, Michael, is of paramount importance in this passage into Scheu. And
Hoelderlin cannot be so swiftly discounted in this passage -- in his essay
and lecture-course on Hoelderlin's "Andenken", Heidegger dwells on the
line, "Manches traegt Scheu / an die Quelle zu gehen". Importantly, the
1967 lecture abstains from exaggerating or aggrandizing poetry; Heidegger
simply refers to 'the work'. Which would certainly leave room for music
(Heid's own remarks on music are relatively unhelpful -- though he says
something interesting about Stravinsky in GA13). Also for sculpture, as the
brief essay "Art and Space" demonstrates.
A long response to a longer post ... but seit ein Gespraech sind wir...
(Though I think your shots at Derrida are rather flippant; topic for
another time).
Cheers,
Paul N. Murphy
University of Toronto
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---