‘Nature’, Physis and the Holy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v2i2.237Keywords:
Martin Heidegger, environmental philosophy, post-Christian metaphysics, philosophy of nature, physisAbstract
Heidegger’s later philosophy holds much that is of relevance to contemporary interest in the relationship between nature and religion/spirituality. By interpreting nature in ontological terms as a mode of Being’s self-presencing, and defining humanity as Dasein,
the essential site for Being’s self-manifestation, Heidegger offers us an account of natural/human spirituality that provides both a
coherent critique of the origins and character of the modern ecological crisis and the death of the holy. Heidegger portrays humanity as called upon to protect and care for the entities of nature, and points the way toward the rediscovery of our essential relationship with Being, and thereby the resacralization of nature and the rediscovery of the numinous dimension of human existence.
References
Alderman, Harold. 1978. ‘Heidegger’s Critique of Science and Technology’, in Michael Murray (ed.), Heidegger and Modern Philosophy (London: Yale University Press): 35-50.
Foltz, Bruce V. 1995. Inhabiting the Earth (New Jersey: Humanities Press).
Gray, J. Glenn. 1957. ‘Heidegger’s Course: From Human Existence to Nature’, The Journal of Philosophy 54.8: 197-207. doi:10.2307/2021841.
Heidegger, Martin. 1962. Being and Time (Oxford: Blackwell).
———. 1971. ‘The Thing’, in Poetry, Language, Thought (New York: Harper & Row): 161-84.
———. 1977a. ‘The Age of the World Picture’, in Heidegger 1977c: 115-54.
———. 1977b. ‘The Word of Nietzsche: “God Is Dead”’, in Heidegger 1977c: 53-112.
———. 1977c. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays (New York: Harper & Row)
———. 1993a. ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’, in Heidegger 1993e: 143-203.
———. 1993b. ‘Letter on Humanism’, in Heidegger 1993e: 217-65.
———. 1993c. ‘Modern Science, Metaphysics and Mathematics’, in Heidegger 1993e: 271-305.
———. 1993d. ‘The Question Concerning Technology’, in Heidegger 1993e: 311-41.
———. 1993e. Basic Writings (London: Routledge).
———. 1998. Parmenides (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).
———. 2000. Introduction to Metaphysics (London: Yale University Press).
———. 2005. Sojourns: The Journey to Greece (Albany: State University of New York Press).
Lawrence, Joseph P. 1989. ‘Nietzsche and Heidegger’, History of European Ideas 11: 711-17. doi:10.1016/0191-6599(89)90259-3.
Most, Glenn W. 2002. ‘Heidegger’s Greeks’, Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 10.1: 83-98.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1993. The Birth of Tragedy (London: Penguin).
Rolston III, Holmes. 1998. ‘Technology Versus Nature: What Is Natural?’, Ends and Means 2.2 (Spring): 1-12.
Schadewaldt, W. 1979. ‘The Concepts of Nature and Technique According to the Greeks’, Research in Philosophy and Technology 2: 159-71.
Seidel, George J. 1971. ‘Heidegger: Philosopher for Ecologists?’, Man and World 4: 93-99. doi:10.1007/BF01248580.
Spinks, Lee. 2003. Friedrich Nietzsche (London: Routledge).
Young, Julian. 2002. Heidegger’s Later Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Zimmerman, Michael. 1990. Heidegger’s Confrontation with Modernity: Technology, Politics, Art (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press).
