This book grew from a series of lectures presented in 1983 in the context of the Summer Program in Phenomenology at The Pennsylvania State University. For these lectures I made use of notes and short essays which I had written between 1978 and 1982 during interdisciplinary seminars on Heidegger's later philosophy in general, and on his philosophy of language and art in particular. The participants in these seminars consisted of faculty members and graduate students concerned with the sciences, the arts, literature, literary criticism, art history, art education, and philosophy. On both occasions I made a special effort to introduce those who did not yet have a specialized knowledge of Heidegger's philosophy, to his later way of thinking. In this effort I was guided by the conviction that we, as a group, had to aim for accuracy, precision, clarity, faithfulness, and depth, while at the same time taking distance, comparing Heidegger's views with ideas of other philosophers and thinkers, and cultivat ing a proper sense of criticism. Over the years it has become clear to me that among professional philoso phers, literary critics, scholars concerned with art history and art education, and scientists from various disciplines, there are many who are particularly interested in "Heidegger's philosophy of art". I have also become convinced that many of these dedicated scholars often have difficulty in understanding Heidegger's lectures on art and art works. This is understandable.

Inhalt

I. Some Observations on the History of Aesthetics and on the Manner in which Heidegger Has Tried to Retrieve Some of its Essential Moments.- § 1. Introduction. Aesthetics: The Discipline and the Name.- I. The Classical Conceptions of Beauty and Art.- § 2. Plato's Conception of Beauty and Art.- § 3. From Aristotle to the Middle Ages.- § 4. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance.- a) Medieval Aesthetics. Aquinas.- b) The Renaissance.- II. Modern Aesthetics.- § 5. Baumgarten, Burke, and Herder.- a) Rationalism. Baumgarten.- b) Empiricism. Burke.- c) Romanticism. Herder.- § 6. Kant and Goethe.- III. Hegel.- § 7. Hegel's Aesthetics. Aesthetics and Art History.- § 8. On Beauty and Art in Hegel.- § 9. The Beauty of Art and its Particular Forms.- IV. The Century after Hegel.- § 10. Richard Wagner.- § 11. Nietzsche's Concern with Aesthetics.- a) Nietzsche's Metaphysics. Will-to-Power. The Basic Questions of Philosophy.- b) Five Basic Theses on Art and their Implication.- § 12. Nietzsche on the Essence of Art.- a) On Rapture (Rausch).- b) Rapture and the Form-Creating Force.- c) Art in the Grand Style.- d) On Truth and Art.- § 13. Neo-Kantianism and the Hermeneutic Tradition.- II. Heidegger's "On the Origin of the Work of Art".- I. Introductory Reflections. - The Historical Context of the Lectures. - Their Subject Matter and Method.- Art. I. The Historical Context and the Character of the Lectures.- § 14. The Historical Context of the Holzwege Essay on Art.- a) From Being and Time to "The Origin of the Work of Art".- b) The Epilogue and its Implications.- § 15. How Is Heidegger's Essay on the Art Work to Be Interpreted?.- Art. II. The Subject Matter and the Method of the Lectures.- § 16. Origin and Coming-to-Presence. Hermeneutic Phenomenology.- a) Origin and Coming-to-Presence. - The Question of Method.- b) Destructive Retrieve.- c) Phenomenology: The Method of Ontology.- 1. Phenomenon.- 2. Apophantic Logos and Truth.- 3. The Preliminary Conception of Phenomenology.- d) Hermeneutic Phenomenology.- § 17. The Hermeneutic Circle.- a) From Work to Art and from Art to Work. The Circle.- b) Understanding, Interpretation, and the Hermeneutic "As".- c) The Hermeneutic Circle in Being and Time.- d) The Circle in Hegel and Heidegger.- II. The Thing and The Work.- Art. I. The Ontological Question Concerning the Thing-Being of the Thing.- § 18. The Art Work Does Have a Thingly Character.- a) Art Works Are Things.- b) Traditional Interpretations of the Thing-Being of the Thing.- § 19. Toward the Genuine Origin of the Hylemorphic Structure. - Retrospect.- a) Equipment between Thing and Work.- b) Retrospect on the Critical Reflections on the Three Thing-Conceptions.- Art. II. From Equipment to Work of Art.- § 20. Elucidation of the Equipment-Being of Equipment by Means of a Work of Art.- a) A Pair of Farmer's Shoes as an Example of a Piece of Equipment.- b) The Illumination of the Equipment-Being of Equipment with the Help of an Immediate Experience with a Work of Art: van Gogh, Schapiro, Derrida.- § 21. The Truth Establishes Itself in the Work.- a) Reliability and the Hylemorphic Structure.- b) The First Characterization of the Work-Being of the Work: In It the Truth Establishes Itself. On the Essence of Art and the Artistically Beautiful.- c) Summary and Prospect.- III. Art Work and Truth.- Art. I. Some Essential Characteristics of Art Works.- § 22. How to Unfold the Essential Characteristics of Works of Art?.- a) The Art Work Stands on Its Own (Eigenständigkeit).- b) The Coming-to-Pass of the Truth of Beings in a Greek Temple.- § 23. The Setting-Up and the Opening-Up of a World.- § 24. The Second Characteristic of the Work-Being of the Work. - The Unity of the Two Essential Characteristics.- a) The Making-Present of the Earth.- b) The Intimacy of the Battle between World and Earth.- Art. II. The Coming-to-Pass of the Truth in the Work of Art.- § 25. Heidegger's Conception of the Essence of Truth.- § 26. Truth as Correspondence and Truth as Non-Concealment. Truth and Work.- a) Truth as Non-Concealment.- b) The Strife between Truth and Untruth and the Battle between World and Earth. The Beautiful versus the True.- c) From Work and Truth to Truth and Art.- IV. Truth and Art.- Art. I. Artistic Production. The Work as Having-Been-Produced.- § 27. Artistic Production and the Clearing of the Openness in the Work.- a) Toward the Essence of Artistic Production.- b) The Establishment of the Clearing of the Openness of the Truth in the Work.- § 28. The Coming-toPass of the Truth Is Fixed as Gestalt. Having-Been-Produced.- a) The Coming-to-Pass of Non-Concealment Becomes Fixed as Gestalt.- b) Having-Been-Produced Is an Integral Aspect of the Work of Art.- Art. II. The Art Work Is to Be Kept in the Truth.- § 29. Art Works Are to Be Preserved.- a) Preservation as the Standing within the Coming-to-Pass of the Truth.- b) Preservation and Experiencing Works of Art.- § 30. Once More the Thingly Character of the Work.- a) From the Thingly Character to the Earthy Character of the Work.- b) Why Does the Thing Belong to the Earth?.- V. On the Essence of Art. Its Coming-to-Presence and Its Abidance.- § 31. Toward the Essence of Art.- a) Art as the Origin of the Work, the Artist, and the Preserver.- b) Poetizing Is the Essence of Art.- c) The Essence of Art, Language, and Truth.- § 32. On the Coming-to-Presence of Poetizing.- a) Poetizing as the Originating, Founding, and Granting Institution of the Truth.- b) Art as Original Leap (Ur-Sprung).- § 33. On Thinking and Poetizing.- § 34. The Relevance of these Reflections for Contemporary Art.- Conclusion: Heidegger on Art.- Notes.