Studies in Phenomenology



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«ETHICAL» DIMENSION OF HEIDEGGER'S PHILOSOPHY: THE QUESTION OF THE ORIGINS OF ETHICS

Title in the language of publication: DIE «ETHISCHE» DIMENSION DER HEIDEGGERSCHEN PHILOSOPHIE: DIE FRAGE NACH DER URSPRÜNGLICHEN ETHIK
Author: Natalia Artemenko
Issue: HORIZON. Studies in Phenomenology.
Vol. 4, №1 (2015),  146-157
Language: German
Document type: Research Article
DOI : 10.18199/2226-5260-2015-4-1-146-157 PDF (Downloads: 3452)

Abstract
The theme «Heidegger and ethics» remains controversial among the researchers of Heidegger. Somehow it turns to talk about Heidegger and do not raise issues of ethics and, by contrast, the talks about ethics often directly concern the figure of Heidegger. Our task is not to justify the possibility of «Heidegger‘s ethics». The question of ethics in Heidegger‘s philosophy should be shown as quite competent as well as the demonstration an ethical perspective in his thinking at different stages. However, the very first difficulty that we face, setting themselves above the problem is that Heidegger quite rare and very specific — for the most part even negative — spoke about ethics. The second problem — quite obvious here — Heidegger did not leave us any systematic work devoted to ethics. In this article we try to trace the path of Heidegger‘s thinking in order to understand where there is any possibility of the ethical dimension in Heidegger‘s philosophy which is seen by different researchers in the different manners. Heidegger proposes to consider ethics in its original source, distinguishing it from morality as well as from «ethics» as a «philosophical discipline» closed to the social or political issues. Heidegger distinguishes ἔθος and ἦθος, preferring to talk about «ethos» and not about «ethics». The main «hero» for Heidegger is Aristotle. Heidegger was not so much influenced by Aristotle as he helped to bring Aristotle to some entirely new and unexpected interpretation which is differ from the traditional interpretation. We must say that Heidegger from the outset challenged the established and entrenched in the European metaphysics the primacy of practical over the theoretical. To rethink the «first» of the first philosophy — that's what Heidegger attempts, referring to the Aristotelian texts. The leading question in regard to the interpretation of Aristotle is the question about existential objectness, in which and through which human existence and the existence of life being interpreted. Heidegger asks himself what is a phenomenal base of the explication of Dasein and what categories occur here. We are following this question in the article, beginning with the project of the hermeneutic phenomenology and ending with the existentiall-historical thinking as significant milestones of Heidegger's path of thinking.

Key words
Ethics, ἔθος, ἦθος, Aristotle, Dasein, existence, being, ontology, ontic foundation, hermeneutic phenomenology, factuality, Ereignis.

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