Anti-tradition-On Heidegger's View Of Art

This paper is intended to make an initial study of Heidegger's view of art from the anti-traditional perspective, trying to achieve this aim through the comparison between the traditional theories and his artistic theory. Anti-tradition, in this paper, means overcoming the traditional metaphysics which refers to the philosophy lasting from Plato to Heidegger's era. Upon this base, this thesis will focus on Heidegger's innovative theory of art, that is, the theory of the origin of artworks.This dissertation is composed of six chapters.Chapter One,"Introduction", discusses Heidegger's career and his anti-traditional philosophy. This chapter is divided into three sections. Section One introduces his career, and his philosophy. Through the introduction and argumentation, it aims to show that Heidegger is an anti-traditional thinker. Section Two makes a survey of the current situation of the research on Heidegger's artistic view. Section Three brings the main content of this thesis to light and emphasizes that anti-tradition is one of the basic clues to his artistic theory if we intend to have a better view of the subject.Chapter Two,"The Traditional Views on the Origins of the Artworks", is composed of five sections. In order to bring Heideggers's anti-traditional view of art into relief, we should make a survey of traditional theories about the source of the artwork, for Heidegger's view of art is concentrated upon the origin of the work of art. Five important traditional artistic theories are mentioned there. Plato claims that art is the imitation of imitation, that is, he considers an ordinary material thing as an imitation of transcendent form or structure, and the painting as the imitation of a real thing or an imitation's imitation. Aristotle regards art as an imitation of life, and attributes the origin of art to the human affinity for imitation. Kant holds that genius is the talent giving the rule to art and that art is the genius'creation. To Hegel, the work of art, as the externally sensual presentation of the spirit, is the unity of the spiritual and the sensual. Nietzsche's artistic theory mainly deals with tragedy. In his view, tragedy is the solution to the problem of culture, and the birth of tragedy can be found in the actual need of life. No matter what the traditional artistic theories are concerned with, they seek the origins of artworks from the outside of the works, while Heidegger tries to come back to artworks themselves to get the origin of artworks with the phenomenological method.Chapter Three,"Thing, Thingness, Equipment, and Work of Art", compares the traditional concepts of the thing and Heidegger's thingness. This chapter is divided into three sections. Section One discusses the traditional concepts of the thing and the work. In Heidegger's view, the traditional interpretations of the thingness of the thing can be classified into three kinds:"the thing as a bearer of traits, as the unity of a manifold of sensations, as the formed matter". However, None of the three will do to reach the nature of the work. Section Two talks about the equipment and the work. In order to think about the thingly element of the work and avoid the metaphysical mistakes, he finds the equipment, which is between the thing and the work, will serve as the medium to get access to the nature of the thing and the artwork. In Section Three, the author takes Heidegger's example of jug to expose the nature of the thing. He asserts that the jug's jug-nature consists in giving the poured gift which can be a drink in the form of wine or water. In the gift of the outpouring, earth and sky, divinities and mortalities dwell all together at the same time. These four belong together and are enfolded into"a single fourfold". The thingness of the thing lies in the unity of the fourfold.Chapter Four,"Art as Setting-into-work of Truth", deals with truth and art. This chapter consists of three sections. Section One discusses the traditional and Heidegger's truth. The essence of the traditional truth lies in"agreement"of the judgment with its object. It is through the representation that the thing can be connected with the assertion. In representation, we and the things must stand in the open or clearing so that the"agreement"can take place; therefore, the thing that makes the rightness possible must have a more original source to be the essence of the truth. Heidegger asserts that the essence of truth is freedom which is to let whatever is at the moment be what it is and reveals itself as the"letting-be"of what-is. Heidegger also regards the ancient Greeks' truth—aletheia as the unconcealedness of beings. At the same time, there is the other side of truth which is the concealment or untruth. Heidegger declares that truth in its nature is untruth, and that this opposition between truth and untruth is the primal conflict of the truth. Section Two discusses the artwork. The setting up of a world and the setting forth of the earth are two essential features in the work-being of the work. Section Three discusses art as"setting-into-work"of truth and work's preservation. It is the essence of truth to set up itself within beings, so the impulse towards the work consists in the nature of truth.Chapter Five,"The Poetized Origin of Art"is divided into two sections. Section One deals with the nature of art as poetry. One of the most anti-traditional statements of Heidegger's theory of art is that all art is poetry. In terms of Chen Jiaying's and Zhang Xianglong's study, poetry is Dichtung in German, whose verb form is dichten; when Heidegger uses it, he emphasizes the meaning of"composition". Poetry has the meaning of composition, so it is relevant to the projection, sketch and shaping of art. In Section Two, Heidegger's nature of poetry is expressed by the five quotations from Holderlin's poems including: 1."Writing poetry: / That most innocent of all occupations", 2."Therefore has language, most dangerous of possessions, been given to man…", 3."Since we have been a conversation / And have been able to hear from one another", 4."But that which remains, is established by the poets", and 5."and yet poetically , dwells / Man on this earth".Chapter Six,"Conclusion", summarizes the main points of this thesis. This paper has discussed Heidegger's anti-traditional view of art from four respects: the traditional origins of artworks; the traditional concepts of the thing and Heidegger's thingness; the traditional truth and Heidegger's truth; and the poetized origin of art. All in all, anti-tradition is one of the basic clues to Heidegger's theory of art if we intend to have a better view of the subject.