Abstract
One prominent interpretation of Heidegger's thought on issues that are traditionally called “ethical” is that it gives us a formal description of how to reach authenticity (the early Heidegger) or how to gain a free relationship to technology (the late Heidegger) without stating any positive prescriptions. However, as Hubert L. Dreyfus (1995), (2000) has argued, there is more than pure formalism to Heidegger's thought: he points again and again to how important rootedness, Boden and Heimat, are in trying to overcome the technological understanding of being. Notoriously, Heidegger sees a special role to the Greek-German linguistic axis in internally challenging the tradition of Western metaphysics. This putative special status is in an unsettling way connected to Heidegger's antidemocratic ideas and to the “closedness” of the tradition that according to him is able to challenge the technological world. We will claim here that there is a way of opening up and thus, in a sense, democratizing the role of tradition and rootedness. However, this democatization has to be done without losing sight of the importance of positive content (as opposed to formal description) in overcoming technology. This opening up is connected to the idea of local gods in later Heidegger as interpreted by Dreyfus; however, the democratization comes at the price of making ethics local as opposed to universal.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albert, Borgmann, Crossing the Postmodern Divide (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992).
Taylor, Carman, “Must We Be Inauthentic?”, in Heidegger, Authenticity, and Modernity. Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus, Volume 1, eds. Mark Wrathall, and Jeff Malpas, (Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press, 2000).
Carleton, Christensen, “Getting Heidegger Off the West Coast”, Inquiry 41(1998): 65–87.
Jacques, Derrida, Of Spirit. Heidegger and the Question (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1989).
John, Dewey, Experience and Nature (New York: Dover, 1958).
Hubert, Dreyfus, “Responses”, in Heidegger, Authenticity, and Modernity. Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus, Volume 1, eds. Mark Wrathall, and Jeff Malpas, (Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press, 2000).
Hubert, Dreyfus, “Heidegger on Gaining a Free Relation to Technology”, in Technology and the Politics of Knowledge, eds. Andrew Feenberg, and Alistair Hannay, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995).
Hubert, Dreyfus, “Heidegger on the Connection Between Nihilism, Art, Technology, and Politics”, in The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger, ed. Charles Guignon, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
Hubert, Dreyfus, Being-in-the-World (Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 1990).
Hubert, Dreyfus and John, Haugeland, “Husserl and Heidegger: Philosophy's Last Stand”, Heidegger & Modern Philosophy, ed. Michael Murray, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978).
Hubert, Dreyfus and Charles, Spinosa, “Highway Bridges and Feasts: Heidegger and Borgmann on How to Affirm Technology”, Man and World (1997).
Hubert, Dreyfus and Charles, Spinosa, “Two Kinds of Antiessentialism and Their Consequences.”, Critical Inquiry 22 (1996): 735–763.
Andrew, Feenberg and Alastair Hannay, (eds.), Technology and the Politics of Knowledge (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995).
Paul, Feyerabend, The Conquest of Abundance, ed. Bert Terpstra (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999).
Stuart, Hampshire, Justice is Conflict (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000).
John, Haugeland, “Truth and Finitude. Heidegger's Transcendental Existentialism”, in Heidegger, Authenticity, and Modernity. Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus, Volume 1, eds. Mark, Wrathall and Jeff Malpas, (Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press, 2000).
Randall, Havas, “The Significance of Autheticity”, in Heidegger, Authenticity, and Modernity. Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus, Volume 1, eds. Mark, Wrathall and Jeff Malpas, (Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press, 2000).
Martin, Heidegger, “Die Zeit des Weltbildes”, Gesamtausgabe 5 (Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1977). (ZW)
Martinm, Heidegger, Über den Humanismus (Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1949). (H)
Martinm, Heidegger, Einführung in die Metaphysik. (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1953). (EM)
Martin, Heidegger, Unterwegs zur Sprache (Pfullingen: Neske, 1959). (US)
Martin, Heidegger, Gelassenheit (Pfullingen: Neske, 1959).
Martin, Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought. Transl. Albert Hofstadter (New York: Harper & Row, 1971). (PLT)
Martin, Heidegger, “Sprache und Heimat.” Gesamtausgabe 13 (Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1983).
Martinm, Heidegger, Nietzsche Vol. 1 & 2. Transl. David Farrell Krell (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991).
Martin, Heidegger, Sein und Zeit. Siebzehnte Auflage (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1993). (SuZ)
Martin, Heidegger, “Only a God Can Save Us”, Der Spiegel`s interview with Martin Heidegger, in The Heidegger Controversy. A Critical Reader, ed. Robert Wolin (Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press, 1993).
Martin, Heidegger, Zollikoner Seminare. Herausgegeben von Medard Boss (Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1994).
Martin, Heidegger, Contributions to Philosophy: (From Enowning). transl. Emad, Parvis & Maly, Kenneth (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999). (CP)
David Farrell, Krell, “Spiriting Heidegger”, in Of Derrida, Heidegger and Spirit, ed. Wood, David (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1993).
David Farrell, Krell, “Heidegger Nietzsche Nazism”, Introduction to the paperback edition. Heidegger, Martin. Nietzsche Vol. 1 & 2.Transl. Transl. David Farrell Krell (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991).
Reinhard, May, Heidegger's Hidden Sources. Transl. Graham Parkes (London: Routledge, 1996).
Arkady, Plotnitsky, The Knowable and the Unknowable. Modern Science, Nonclassical Thought, and the “Two Cultures” (Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 2002).
Otto, Pöggeler, “Heideggers politisches Selbstverständnis”, A. Gethmann-Siefert and O. Pöggeler (hrsg.). Heidegger und die praktische Philosophie (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1988).
Otto, Pöggeler, “Being as Appropriation”, in Heidegger & Modern Philosophy, ed. Michael Murray (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978).
Pauli, Pylkkö, The Aconceptual Mind. Heideggerian Themes in Holistic Naturalism (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1998).
Tom, Rockmore, “Heidegger on Technology and Democracy”, in Technology and the Politics of Knowledge, eds. Andrew Feenberg, and Alastair Hannay, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995).
Vadén, Tere, “Qualifying Qualia Through the Skyhook Test”, Inquiry 44 (2001): 149–170.
Tere, Vadén and Mika, Hannula, Rock the Boat. Localized Ethics, the Situated Self and Particularism in Contemporary Art (Köln: Salon Verlag, 2003).
Richard, Wolin, (ed.), The Heidegger Controversy. A Critical Reader (Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press, 1993).
Christian, von Krockow Die Entscheidung. Eine Untersuchung über Ernst Jünger, Carl Schmitt, Martin Heidegger. Frankfurt: Campus, 1990. (orig. published 1958).
Mark, Wrathall and Jeff Malpas, (eds.), Heidegger, Authenticity, and Modernity. Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus, Volume 1 (Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press, 2000).
Julian, Young, “What is Dwelling? The Homelessness of Modernity and the Worlding of the World”, in Heidegger, Authenticity, and Modernity. Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus, Volume 1, eds. Mark, Wrathall and Jeff, Malpas, (Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press, 2000).
Michael, Zimmerman, “The End of Authentic Selfhood in the Postmodern Age?” in Heidegger, Authenticity, and Modernity. Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus, Volume 1, eds. Mark, Wrathall and Jeff Malpas, (Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press, 2000).
Slavoj, Zizek, The Ticklish Subject. The Absent Centre of Political Ontology (London: Verso, 2000).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vadén, T. Ethics and gods: How is local ethics possible?. Cont Philos Rev 38, 165–197 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-005-9006-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-005-9006-x