Dr. phil. Klaus Nielandt

For Heidegger, the modern understanding of being is located within the space-time horizon of metaphysics in the form of a nihilistic "will to power", which makes it increasingly difficult for it to free itself from metaphysical thinking. With the progress and success of science and technology, the addiction of the modern age to metaphysics even seems to increase; man will ultimately be brought into the closed horizon of a tragic and nihilistic interpretation of being. The age of enlightenment, is in fact - according to the thesis of the author - not yet at an end: Only if enlightenment, through basic "philosophical thought", reflects on its own foundation in a more fundamental and critical way and really makes the "turning" ("Kehre"), might it be able to overcome its unexplored addiction to the horizon of metaphysics, as well as to overcome modern man's alienation of the self and Being, and to find its way back to the Greek beginnings of western thought. Going beyond Heidegger, this essay identifies “philosophical thought” as the common essential core of the philosophies of Heidegger, Kant, and Jaspers, and argues that while Heidegger overcame human alienation from Being, he did not, due to the ethical deficiency of his philosophy, overcome human self-alienation. Yet precisely in the disclosure of Being to the human being lies the foundation of an unconditional and universal human dignity: the human being possesses such dignity because Being discloses itself in and through him.

For Heidegger, the modern understanding of being is located within the space-time horizon of metaphysics in the form of a nihilistic "will to power", which makes it increasingly difficult for it to free itself from metaphysical thinking. With the progress and success of science and technology, the addiction of the modern age to metaphysics even seems to increase; man will ultimately be brought into the closed horizon of a tragic and nihilistic interpretation of being. The age of enlightenment, is in fact - according to the thesis of the author - not yet at an end: Only if enlightenment, through basic "philosophical thought", reflects on its own foundation in a more fundamental and critical way and really makes the "turning" ("Kehre"), might it be able to overcome its unexplored addiction to the horizon of metaphysics, as well as to overcome modern man's alienation of the self and Being, and to find its way back to the Greek beginnings of western thought.