By no means: Martin Heidegger on the eye of the glow worm

Abstract

In his lecture course The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics (1929-1930) Martin Heidegger repeatedly alludes to experiments with insects as examples for the relation of animals to the world. One report deals with a photograph made through the compound eye of a glow worm. By questioning what the glow worm might see, Heidegger separated animal vision from human vision as ontologically incomparable. In my paper I first show the source of Heidegger's report and then discuss how deeper knowledge of the original investigation might shed new light on Heidegger's presentation and his conclusions.