Heidegger's explanatory perspective on "poetic dwelling"

Source: Reading Special

"Poetic inhabitation" is to judge and build life on the scale of "poetry", and to dilute the rigid survival system with the return of the humanistic spirit and soul.

Man is a hurried visitor to the earth and a builder of his own good life. When civilization develops to a certain time, what is the appropriate way for people to survive? Heidegger, a German master of existentialism and representative of existential philosophy, provides an explanatory perspective of "poetic inhabitation", interpreting the human good life from the philosophical and spiritual dimensions.

"Poetic dwelling" comes from a poem by the 19th-century German poet Holderlin: "Man is full of labor, but he also lives poetically on this earth." In fact, the poet Hölderlin "is an incompetent man", but he is keenly aware that the development of scientific, technological and industrial civilization is forming a huge squeeze on human survival. In Bread and Wine, he asks, "What is a poet in this age of poverty?" Heidegger, on the other hand, transformed Hölderlin's expression of reality into a philosophical proposition of existence of necessity.

Heidegger believes that in the era of "God's absence" and "the fading of the gods", philosophical poverty, human desire, technical rationality is supreme, and the humanistic spirit is in decline. The "abundance" life and "conspicuous consumption" that Veblen once described stirred up vanity and pursuit. On the other hand, "our habitat is plagued by a shortage of housing. Even if this were not the case, our dwellings today are tormented by labor, at peace by the pursuit of merit and profit, and by entertainment and pastimes. "The object of technological domination is becoming faster and faster, more and more careless, and more and more completely implemented around the world, replacing everything that was once visible and conventional."

And this "technological domination" pervades everything and becomes a calculating act: "The human nature and materiality of man are divided into a market value that can be calculated in the market within the scope of manufacturing that carries out the intention." This market is not only spread all over the world as a world market, but also buys and sells in the essence of existence as a will-seeking will, and thus brings all beings into an act of calculation which rules more tenaciously where numbers are not needed. ”

Industrial civilized society brings all beings into a calculating act, which is exclusive from "poetry" and is the alienation of man. As Marcuse argues, technological rationality turns people into "one-dimensional people."

So what is "poetic dwelling"? Heidegger argues, "It is only when we know poetry that we can experience our non-poetic dwelling and why we inhabit it non-poetically." Poetic dwelling means: being in the present of the gods, trembling with the proximity of the essence of things. This poetic existence on its roots means at the same time that this presence is created, not a labor, but a gift. Hai pointed out: "If in today's dwelling, people have also left room for poetry and saved some time, then at most, it is engaged in some kind of literary and artistic activities, either written literature or television literature." "It's not really poetic dwelling.

Heidegger further points out: "We are thus faced with a double demand: on the one hand, we are to think of what people call human existence in terms of the nature of dwelling; on the other hand, we are to think of the essence of poetry as dwelling, a kind of construction, and perhaps even this prominent construction. If we seek the essence of poetry from the perspective indicated here, we can attain the essence of dwelling. These two aspects constitute the fundamental requirement of "poetic dwelling".

Heidegger emphasized that man can only engage in such construction if he has already built in the sense of "taking the scale" of poetry. In such a world age, the essence of the true poet is that the poet as a whole and the poet's vocation first become the poet's poetic inquiry out of the poverty of the times. For this reason, the 'poet of the age of poverty' must poetize the essence of poetry in particular. ”

"Poetry is what really makes us live in peace", "poetic inhabitation" is to judge and build life with the "scale of poetry", and dilute the rigid survival system with the humanistic spirit and soul return. Heidegger's system of interpretation based on Hölderlin explains the human good life from a philosophical and spiritual dimension. The essential question of "poetic dwelling" is, when the material growth and technological world have reached a certain stage of development, what should the human mind, spirit and philosophy be? This is the new proposition of mankind.

"Poetic inhabitation" is a reasonable gesture for human survival. This quest can be seen in Tao Yuanming's "Knot in the Human Realm" and in Henry Thoreau's Walden Lake habitat.

(The author is vice president of Shanghai Municipal Political Science Association)

(Author: Qin Dejun)

This article is from [Reading Special] and only represents the author's views. The National Party Media Information Public Platform provides information release and dissemination services.