“Language
is the house of being. In its home man dwells. Those who think and those who
create with words are the guardians of this home. Their guardianship
accomplishes the manifestation of Being insofar as they bring the manifestation
of language and maintain it in language through their speech.”
(Heidegger:
Letter on Humanism)
Language
is the house of being because it is were being is made manifest for it is in
language that beings are expressed in such a way that being is thus communicated
and therefore understood especially when there is also the presence of the one
listening. Beings are the things which we all are immersed and by that we came
to know them and not only such we come to understand them by language which
speaks to us to make them known. Even in common sense, language is the
expression of being wherein being could be made possibly known because it is
there we can hear of being and furthermore maybe relate with it. Simply a house
is that which shelters and language shelters beings in such a way that is
something where beings rest and thus if language is visited beings are there or
when language takes place, beings come to be. Or it maybe understood in other
terms in relation to the quote above that it is where that specific being
namely “man” dwells. Man dwells in language because man uses language and not
arbitrarily uses it, but he needs language in order to make communication and
understanding possible. Man is thus in this house and is his comfort so as to
say because he finds the luxury to be at home, to dwell in this house by just
the mere evidence of his inevitable use of language in his daily life. But why
man is at this home? As how it goes in Being and Time, man is that one being
wherewith all of the other beings are left to futility, that has the capability
and the power to which Being can be revealed or made known. Because Heidegger
was posing the question whether Being can be known especially that it is the
most common thing around and for all we’ve known we are immersed with beings or
everything is being. And thus starting from the most common we then derive
whether we can possibly know such to the point wherewith in the arrival of the
understanding of Being, then we must go through being but the problem is which
being then is that which is open to Being? Among all of the other beings,
Heidegger says that we start from that being which is closest to us and that is
man, or ourselves, wherein the primacy of the question also is in emphasis
wherein there is no other being who has the ability to question and that is man
per se. Man in relevance to the primacy of asking the question is in use of
language in order to render open what is ask. In Heidegger’s own words “. . .
questioning builds a way” (Question Concerning Technology), wherein questioning
is a quest, a search that we might ultimately find something what we quest for.
But again the agent responsible of which is man. Already, in Being and Time,
man has already been given that role wherein he is that being wherein he can or
might grasp Being because he has the language in order to make it thus happen.
“In
its essence, language is not the utterance of an organism; nor is it the
expression of a living thing, its symbolic character, perhaps not even in terms
of the character of signification. Language is the clearing-concealing advent
of Being itself.”
(Heidegger:
Letter on Humanism)
Language
is the tool or an instrument wherein Being is made manifest. The being which is
closest to us uses this language wherein it is even what Being “uses” to where
it makes itself known. But as stated above the way we understand commonly
language is put to bay here showing that it is not the utterance of what we
deem as the spoken language, but language is this clearing-concealing of being.
A clearing or a giving lucidity or creating space for something to appear,
liken to a clearing of trees in a forest in order for that certain space to be
used. But at the same time clearing is to make clear to make something without
a doubt as it is, whereas to conceal is to close or to prevent from showing
something. But this clearing-concealing is somewhat a paradoxical assimilation
of thought wherein Being is somewhat revealing and unrevealing at the same
time. Being by language shows itself and at the same time it is hidden because
of it. For by language itself creates the way to the understanding or to the
revealing of being but at the same time it is also in that field of language
that one will get lost into arriving at Being. Because there is no other way
wherein we can arrive at being, then the only way is the only way but it is the
most probable way also that we might get lost also, because it is the only way.
Man is dwelling on language and has been in use of language since he came to be
but still he is puzzled whether he arrived at even the understanding of Being
per se.
“Language
still denies us its essence: that it is the house of truth of Being. Instead,
language surrenders itself to our mere willing and trafficking as an instrument
of domination over beings. Beings themselves appear as actualities in the
interaction of cause and effect.”
(Heidegger:
Letter on Humanism)
Although
language is the house of being, yet as mentioned earlier it creates a
paradoxical dilemma wherein it is the way yet the only way which is probable to
getting lost. Language itself denies the access of Being but it is also in
language itself the Being is manifesting itself through it and man is the
closest of which the understanding of it is will be made manifest. “Being is
farther than all beings and is yet nearer to man than every being.” (Letter on
Humanism) Though language which is already made available to man to which man’s
tool also in the understanding of Being is also put to question whether if
there be a method wherein it can be used properly to where Being will be made
available to understanding or will finally reveal itself. But is this really so
the contention wherein is there a proper usage of language wherewith the coming
of Being be made known to man? Yes language is the house of being, and man
dwells in it and through it man can come to the understanding of Being, and so
too Being is using language wherein it will show itself but at the same time is
hidden because of it. We are left at a standstill because we are in between a
paradoxical dilemma wherein the only path is a problematic path. Whether in our
venture we will remain perpetually lost and will never reach Being or will
Being show itself unto us.
“Being
is the nearest. Yet the near remains farthest from man. Man at first clings
always and only to being. But when thinking represents being as beings it no
doubt relates itself to Being.”
(Heidegger:
Letter on Humanism)
Since
what is made available to man are beings man first clings to them because it is
what is immediate but again Being be the objective here, but even so Being is
already at the foothold of being known to man, but it is so near yet so far but
even so when man relates with beings, he inevitably relates with Being, but
again even though yet Being remains far. Man is thrown to and fro in the quest
for Being. Language is the house of being and maybe so also the house of Being.
The house of which being (man) is in the utility in order to arrive at his
quest whereas also Being is already in language but yet remains hidden because
of the nature of language as clearing-concealing. Wherein it clears for a way
in order for revealing but at the same time the revealing is hindered because
it conceals. Being teases or is man helplessly teasing himself into the arrival
of his quest. But still language is the house of being because it is that maybe
a tool to where an opening takes place. But too limited at the same time too
rich for an opening, but also too rich of possibilities to being misled is
language, but has no other option for being man is also in relation of being
capable of language and thus being also helplessly in the quest for Being.
The
same move is also inherent of, especially in how Heidegger portrays his Question
Concerning Technology, wherein quoting from Holderlin that
from
where the danger is,
grows
also the saving power
that from
technology is danger of man but also if there is a “way” wherein the
manipulation of technology be of use to where it can be a saving power then it
thus be so. Heidegger poses that in a certain entity already bears the opposing
sides within, that technology is dangerous but at the same time the saving
power. That is why there will come a certain point that technology is Enframing
wherein it serves as a danger to man since it will conceal the revelation of
Being but it is in that danger wherein Being will slowly unfold itself and thus
the Turning occurs, wherein there is the decisive turn wherein as danger it will
become a saving power, a path to the revelation of Being, of its unconcealment.
Typically, as how I’ve understood Heidegger’s approach on his philosophy is
that he leads us to thinking yes and we cannot help but to continue to think
because of the paradoxical strategy of his relaying of his thoughts. Thus what
Heidegger is calling to is what we call poetics. Wherein from the Greek
connotation of “poesis” that is to create is how Heidegger’s method goes,
wherein the collision of opposites leads to the creation of thought, a somewhat
Hegelian Dialectics wherein opposites tend to meet and thus create a synthesis,
an offspring from the collision. Such is the methods of poetry, creation of
thoughts and a continuous creation thereof.
The quest for Being is then this
continuous poetry wherein thoughts are always created into just only to
understand or to make Being reveal unto man. Language is that only and
problematic key wherein the poetics or the surge of endless thoughts come to
place in order to fully grasp this Being which hides and shows. Poetry is a
creation of meanings especially in making use what is common to it and these
are beings, assimilating essences, ideas only to fully grasp what is meant but
still language still is insufficient but the beings that are used in a specific
poetic schema may mislead someone to the understanding of what is meant or may
be that key which open us the way. Being is that which is supposed to be
understood, and thus poetry is like in the same manner or it is the manifestation
of Being. Because Being is that which is near, it is already inside the poem or
the work of poetry but still yet so far, because man is still incapable or is
capable but still cannot reach to witness the revelation of Being. The play of
language and the essences in poetry is how Being is also in its process of
revealing itself. Being is in a poetic movement for it again continuously
reveals itself and hides, like how poem functions that already in the language
scheme is the opening to the understanding of it but also the language scheme
is also the probable factor of not understanding it all.
Poetry or poetics is one way or is
the activity of the revelation of Being wherein Being is thus continuously
created in many fashions in many intermediaries of beings that are present only
to finally find Being. Language is the key and that problematic key but also
the way to Being is poetry due to its continuous creation. Thus Being is this
posing aim, wherewith man moves towards it but the movement is a complicated
because it is thus Being revealing itself, therefore this philosophy is at one
point a transcending of the natural way we look at cause and effect, because
Being is revealing making it static but an object of activity of man in his
quest for it.
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