From Aesthetic Appearance To Holy Truth

In his Letter on Humanism Heidegger recounts the descent of European Humannism.According to him,German humanism extends in the l8th century from Winckelmann to Schiller.Among those German thinkers,as he holds,Hoelderlin is not a humanist,for Hoelderlin's viewabout the essence of human being was more original than humanists.Heidegger's interpretation ofHoelderlin's poems goes back to the winter semester of 1934,when his readings of Hoelderlin'sGermania and The Rhein entail the basic motive and topic of his later conversations with the poet.In 1935 His lecture The Origin of Artwork launched in the horizon from his interpretation aboutHoelderlin.In this text Heidegger argues that art is something into which truth sets itself.Such afamous conclusion turns out to be an effective revision of Hegel's Aesthetik,whose standpoint,Ithink,also belongs to humanism.In which aspects,according to Heidegger,does Hoelderlintranspasse Schiller's humanistic asthetics? How can Heidegger overcome humanism by way of areflection on art? Such are the topics of my dissertation.The first chapter analyzes Schiller's humanism with an eye to his Letters upon AestheticEducation of Man and his theory of tragedy.Schiller sets out to reunite the gap between moralityand sensual life,between freedom of person and human nature that constitutes the defect of Kant'smoral philosophy.Schiller thought that aesthetic education is the only approach to political liberty.He defines ideal beauty as lively figure (lebendige Gestalt),which is the integration of formalimpulse and sensual impulse.But Schiller took this integration as aesthetic appearance,althoughdifferent from logic appearance,nevertherness is not truth or reality.This shows that Schillercouldn't overcome the gulf between what ought to be and what is,and therefore the gulf betweenmoral liberty and nature.His theory of tragedy inclines to depreciate nature and drum for moralwill.The second chapter discusses how Heidegger's Existenzial break through Kant's theory ofpersonality,which is the metaphysic foundation of Schiller's aesthtics.Kant distinguishes betweenperson and things,taking personality as the ground for moral freedom.In The Basic Problems ofPhenomenology Heidegger indicates that personality in kant's philosophy is a ready-made being,and kant fails to explain the oneness of moral and cognitive personality,so the wholeness of selfhas not been illuminated.In his Being and Time Heidegger elucidates that Dasein'sbeing-in-the-world is a historical and holistic existence,which is antecedent to the distinctionbetween theoretical and practical activity.His analysis of attunement,understanding and discourseas disclosedness of Da-sein breaks through the definition of human being as animal rational,which is a metaphysical foundation of Humanism.The third chapter introduces Heidegger's interpretation on Hoelderlin's hymn Germania andThe Rhein in 1934.The lecture is made of two parts.In the first part Heidegger elucidatesHoelderlin's thought on poem and language.He holds that poem is not mere expression fromexperience (Ausdruckerscheinung von Erlebnissen).According to Hoelderlin,being a poet is to beexposed to the lightning of gods and to transmit the hints of gods to his people.The songs of poettake place as a meditative conversation (Gespraech).Such a conversation,being original,foundsthe historical essence of human being as poetic dwelling on the earth.Heidegger analyses thefundamental attunement (Grundstimmung) in Germania.Fundamental attunement,as he explains,shows the historical situation of a poem.He points out that the fundamental attunement ofHoelderlin's Germania is a holy mourning and a push of on-call.Holiness,which means complete selflessness (vollendete Uneigennuezigkeit),is a basic word for Hoelderlin.Heidegger interprets itas intimacy (lnnigkeit) of gods and earth that found in the fundamental attunement of poem.Presented in Hoelderlin's poem as omnipresent nature,the holiness inscribed in Hoelderlin' hymnexceeds the aesthetic appearance of Schiller's aesthetic education,for it achieves trulyreconciliation of liberty and nature.With his task fulfilled,poet attains the reconciliation of godsand sons of earth.In The Rhein Hoelderlin becomes aware of his destiny as demigod,just likewinegod and the Rhein which bring habitat for German people.As demigod,poet founds theintimacy among earth,the mother,and heaven,the father,the effect of education andembarrassment.The four factors of the lucidus flow of songs flow into a river.Heideggerinterprets this intimacy as antagonistic symbiosis (Feind-seligkeit) from Heraclitus' teaching ofwarfare as principle of all beings and hidden harmony.The fourth chapter compares Heidegger's Origin of ArtWork with Hegel's lecture onAesthtics.Heidegger points out that Hegel's aesthtics is a most comprehensive contemplation onart.In my view,it's especially a colligation of German humanism such as Wincelman and Schiller.We thereby can understand what is outstanding in Heidegger's quest for the essence of art in lightof the thingness(Dinghaft) of artwork.Heidegger reveals that the essence of art in western historyhomologizes with the essence of truth.Only if we overcome the aesthetic attitude to artwork canwe understand great works such as Greek temple.What into-work-set is the intimate strifebetween world and earth.This set is a kind of original taking place of truth as uncoverness,inGreek word aληθειa The original truth set into work has shape of holy beauty.According to Heidegger,beauty is not a parallel to truth,but belongs to the brilliance of truth.Theoriginal truth taken place in great art anticipates the coincidence between propositions and facts.Hegel also takes truth as such kind of coincidence.But Heidegger drops a hint in the end of thelecture that Hoelderlin's poem indicates a request and possibility of residing in original truth.Bydoing this Heidegger questions Hegel's conclusion that art is no longer the highest mode ofexistence of truth.In the addendum I discuss the possible inspiration of Heidegger's thought on great art toChinese new culture.In early 20th.century,the young LuXun published his On the Power of MoroPoem (《摩罗诗力说》),where he introduces Romantic poets prevailing in 19th.century of Europe.He exalts the poets once cursed as Lucifer.(Translated from Sanskrit,the Chinese word摩罗is asupplement for Lucifer).He thinks that the wild vigour in the poems of Romantist such asByron,Shelley,Pet(o|¨)fi and so on promotes the rebirth of old Chinese culture.In this treatise LuXunrevolts against Confucianism,whose teaching of poetics emphasizes gentilesse and piety(温柔敦厚).Thanks to LuXun's introduction,European Romantism,rooted profoundly in humanism,hada far-reaching influence on Chinese modern poem.The inspiration and crisis of Romantism findstheir full expression in Haizi,whose gifted poems characterize the romantic trend of contemporaryChina.As a poet self-proclaimed with wild and grieved temperament,Haizi shows both powerand crisis of Romantism.To rescue Chinese culture from the negative aspects of Romatism,Iwould like to introduce Heidegger,whose reflection on humanism may play a positive role.