Dasein - Monoskop

HEIDEGGER'S ONTOLOGY AND LANGUAGE AS THE UNIVERSAL MEDIUM 213 SI
other words, what began with Descartes unfolds itself here in
an uncanny way .. . 312
Heidegger seems to be somewhat divided as to the question
whether these and similar remarks are to be taken as genuine criticisms
or as a description of something that cannot be changed. On
the one hand, he clearly seems to call upon his readers to adopt a
more poetic attitude towards language. On the other hand, according
to the principles concerning language and Being that he himself
advocates, this kind of criticism cannot lead to any changes in the
way Being sends itself to us. The latter view can be read from the
following passage:
Language still denies us its essence ... Instead, language surrenders
itself to our mere willing and trafficking as an instrument
of domination over beings. 313
Finally, we have to turn to the relativistic implications of Heidegger's
views on language and Being:
(L-7) Language is relative with respect to different communities
and determines their essence and history.
(B-7) An understanding of Being is relative to different languages,
and is determinative of a people's essence and history.
In the preceding section, we found an early expression of thesis
¿-7, in "The Origin of the Work of Art". There Heidegger stresses
that language opens up the world for a people, and that, in the speaking
of language, "the concepts of a historical people's essence, i.e., of
its belonging to world history, are preformed for that people". 314 The
cultural and linguistic relativism that raises its head in these lines
comes out more clearly in the following passage which also provides
confirmation for our ascribing thesis B-7 to Heidegger:
Some time ago I called language, clumsily enough, the house
of Being. If man by virtue of his language dwells within the
claim and call of Being, then we Europeans presumably dwell
in an entirely different house then Eastasian man. ... And so,
a dialogue from house to house remains nearly impossible. 315