BEING QUA THE ALIEN <br>Heidegger’s path on the other side of ontology and hermeneutics

Abstract

ThTh is article primarily considers the Michel Henry’s proposition that,aftft er Descartes, we can speak of the subordination of ontology to phenomenology.The proposition of the phenomenalization of being can be acceptable if we chooseHusserl’s philosophical program as a starting point, and not Heidegger’s. Heidegger’sunique attempt - while avoiding the trap of hierarchy, to avoid establishing theproductive cooperation of ontology, phenomenology and newly formed logicin the form of hermeneutics in Being and Time - did not produce the resultsexpected. The hermeneutically led “escape” from the tradition of conceptualizingbeing turned out to be unsuccessful. For Heidegger, parting with the tradition ofmetaphysics meant a departure from the tradition of appropriation, the basichermeneutic approach on which all western rationality is built. Departing fromappropriation, Heidegger’s demand of being is grounded on a step in the oppositedirection. Emphasizing dispossession, i.e. alienation in relation to the customaryand common, in Heidegger’s thought however turned out to be disputablebecause, in order to illustrate it indirectly, Heidegger depended exclusively on theexperience of writing poetry. The author concludes that, together with rejectionof the practical sphere as a result of its inherent technique of depersonalization,i.e. of the metaphysical product of subjectivization and systematic calculation, wenecessarily block out also the demanded alienation. Namely, every estrangement,even that which is aimed at a new beginning to thinking, can take place only in thepresence of demands that are related to real life in such a world, and not outside of it.