Heideggers unheimliche Heimat

Abstract

Martin Heidegger has been labeled the philosopher of “home” (Heimat) and “homelessness” (Heimatlosigkeit). But he is also the philosopher of “the uncanny” (das Unheimliche). The present paper first explores the uncanniness provoked by anxiety as Heidegger describes it in Being and Time. It then shows how this uncanniness is based on the relationship between thinking and being, as already described by Parmenides and exemplified by Heidegger in his interpretation of the first chorus in Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone. Heidegger shows that the uncanny in the relationship between thinking and being, i.e. between “Humanity” and “Being”, is not based in their difference but their identity. Humans, understood as “being-there” (Da-sein), have to cope with the fact that they have to disclose in their actions – be it thinking, writing poetry or fabricating – the essence of Being, which consists in being the autonomous appearing of beings. Thus, humanity has to accept the uncanniness of not being the independent subject dominating Earth, but a part of evolving nature itself.