Matteo Valdarchi - The circle and the origin. An interpretation of Heidegger's Habilitationsschrift

The BSP Podcast turns to a paper from Matteo Valdarchi, who has studied philosophy at the Pontificial Gregorian University and at the University of Roma Tre. The recording is taken from our 2019 Annual Conference, ‘The Theory and Practice of Phenomenology’.

ABSTRACT: Since his early stages, the young Heidegger embraced with fervour the Husserlian phenomenological method (at least the one contained in the Logische Untersuchungen), although he immediately kept his distance from it, introducing a new way of doing phenomenology, independent and more fundamental. Not surprisingly, the phenomenological project that arises from his early works is called «Ursprungswissenschaft». But where can we find the seeds of this “science”? Usually, those can be identified in the course of the Kriegsontsemester (1919). The aim of this paper is to show that the very beginning of this project is, instead, in his post-doctoral dissertation, Die Kategorien- und Bedeutungslehre des Duns Scotus. The Habilitationsschrift unfolds a movement that starts from the exclusion of the Aristotelian-scholastics “metaphysics” from the question of categories (namely, of being), in favour of the immanence of the subjectivity in the judgement. With this first movement, the meaning of ‘being’ is radically transformed, changing from “being that actually exists” to “being that’s valid” [gilt] of the copula. The second movement (or counter-move) shows the intentional disposition of the logical setting, enlightening the material principle that determines logical forms: the categories of meaning that weave the sphere of language. It is at this level that the young Heidegger, although adopting the teaching of the IV research, already allows the origin of the logic to emerge from a more fundamental field, that is language, in which ‘being’ neither it’s a “is” nor it is valid, but it means. However here the language isn’t entangled in the theoretical (“circular” in 1919) subjectivity’s tangles, but it opens the way to a new understanding of the subjectivity, of the «historischer Geist». In conclusion, Heidegger’s original appropriation of the phenomenological method lies in understanding of the essence of language, as field of the subjectivity’s historically living movement.

BIO: Matteo Valdarchi studied philosophy at the Pontificial Gregorian University (until 2016) and at the University of Roma Tre (until 2018). His research area includes phenomenology and hermeneutics, particularly Heidegger's thinking. He has taken part in two national conferences, at the 62° and at the 63° Convegno di Ricerca Filosofica organized by Centro Studi Filosofici di Gallarate.

The ‘British Society for Phenomenology Annual Conference 2019 – the Theory and Practice of Phenomenology’ was held at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, UK, 5 – 7 September, 2019: https://www.britishphenomenology.org.uk/conference/

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