Heidegger on Language and Death by Oberst Joachim L.;

Author:Oberst, Joachim L.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2019-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

Hegel’s mystic conception of language operates with the existential-ontological connection of language and death. Death is the ‘Lord and Master’ of self-consciousness. In their deadly confrontations with one another, humans elevate each other to the linguistic realm of Spirit, which has its reality in the social-collective existence of self-consciousness. The process of this elevation consists of the superseding act of linguistic universalization. The supersession of concrete particular entities does not annihilate their sensuous being into nothingness. It preserves their individual existence in the linguistic form of universal concepts. Their preservation is an instance of the conceptual truth of sense perception. Language thus appears to have a double nature. Its foundation in the concrete realm of sense-certainty provides it with an objectivity (Gegenständlichkeit), which allows it to be perceived (vernommen) in the concrete instances of speech acts. However, language does not just consist of the particular, momentary and transient existence of the concrete, linguistic entities of individual words spoken by individuals. Since words are not only produced but also perceived and understood, they have a collective reality in addition to their private reality. It is essential to language to be both a private and a common property of those who speak it. The essential quality of its ‘universal individuality’ conditions the possibility of the transcendence from the vanishing concreteness of sense-certainty (the particular entity) to the enduring perseverance of perceived truth (the universal entity). Since language exists only as a living language in its spoken form, humans who speak it satisfy their existential urge for continued existence. Faced with death, humans find in the existential entity of language a means for personal-ontological survival. Hegel’s conception of language as the spiritual awakening of truth set off in the confrontation of consciousness with the omnipresent threat of death anticipates Heidegger’s notion of language as an existential entity and the ontic-ontological realm of truth revelation.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.