Heidegger

Martin Heidegger’s Introduction to Metaphysics outlines two different approaches to metaphysics.  The Western tradition took up Plato and Aristotle’s formation of metaphysics as that which is literally after “Physics.”“Physics” determines the essence and the history of metaphysics from the inception onward. Even in the doctrine of Being as actus purus (Thomas Aquinas), as absolute concept (Hegel), as central recurrence of the same will to power (Nietzsche), metaphysics steadfastly remains “physics”. (19) The scientific underpinnings of this trajectory, stemming from category formations from topos, gives us Aristotelian propositional logic, ontology,Both [“ontology” and “logic”] come about only on the basis of Aristotelian philosophy. (200) science, mathematics, and goes all the way through to nuclear physics.  This is the path of literacy, or of pure reason.

However, Heidegger’s importance for us is that he goes back to an “originary” Greek inception to show us the other path that was offered, but not taken up.

The path not chosen is still a way of categorizing and making sense of the world, but it approaches the Real from the standpoint of art.  Art provides an optional path towards practical reason.