Speaker: Filippo Casati (Kyoto)
Title: 'Heidegger and the contradiction of Being'
Abstract:
It is well-known that Martin Heidegger tries to develop a ‘fundamental ontology’ which aims at answering the so-called question of Being: what does Being mean? Unfortunately, as Heidegger himself seems to admit, in trying to answer this question, he faces an insurmountable problem: given his own premises, speaking about Being leads to a contradiction. According to the majority, if not all, of the interpreters that admit the existence of this predicament, Heidegger develops different ways of avoiding such a contradiction. But does Heidegger only try to avoid the contradiction? Is this the only way Heidegger tries to solve the predicament? In this talk, I will argue that, in some of his late works and, in particular, in the Contributions to Philosophy, Heidegger also takes into serious consideration the possibility of accepting the contradiction he faces in speaking about Being as true. If this is correct, Heidegger endorses what nowadays analytic philosophers call dialetheism, namely the metaphysical position according to which some (but not all) contradictions are true.
Convenors: Dr Joseph Schear, Dr Manuel Dries, and Prof Mark Wrathall
Webpage: Post-Kantian European Philosophy
