Language Is The House Of Being - How Martin Heidegger Sees Man's Soul
Although critics, scholars, and pundits, go on repeating Heidgger's utterances --especially, 'language is the house of Being-- few have really given us an explanation of what the philosopher really meant by it.
"Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells. Those who think and those who create with words are the guardians of this home." - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher, Letter on Humanism, 1947.
The philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset once said that man had no nature, only history. While I respect this opinion, I think that man's real human nature is language. Just as the lesser god Prometheus handed fire to man, a major God handed a major boon to mankind: language.
After years of pondering whatever Martin Heidegger meant by "Language is the House of Being," it finally dawned on me (as I watched catatrophic news on TV) that Heidegger meant language is not only a construct, a shelter, an edifice, an abode, but the soul of humanity--container of infinity.
Through language we search heaven and earth; through language we accept or reject God; through language we accept or reject the absolutes that guide the human race.
And yes, it is only through language that we experience aesthetic bliss, mystical bliss--and plain human love. Although bliss and love are more akin to the emotional life, the viscera, the central nervous system, the body can only partially express bliss and love. Language is indispensable, or if not, then try to tell that to painters, poets, and writers.
Take Trollope (in History of Pendennis): "It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all." And Trollope went on to fill library shelves with language and love.
We think and we feel by using words. Though words are more adept and adequate to thinking than to feeling, we still recognize that even our deepest emotions must be converted into words to express what we feel. When we immerse ourselves in a good book we feel with and for the characters: with Don Quijote and Sancho we experience the real meaning of friendship; with Anna Karenina and Aschenbach we feel the exquisite pangs of deeply tormented souls; with Remedios The Beauty and Billy Budd we ascend to heaven.
Can we build science without language? Isn't language the vessel of patterns, axioms, equations, paradigms, and formulas? Is wisdom achievable without language?
Even the most recalcitrant nihilist or atheist needs language to refute the existence of God; the same God that gave him the gift of language. Atheist writer Ayn Rand comes to mind. Having written voluminous (and soporific) novels in her second language, she died godless--but not speechless.
When humans master a language, they are never homeless. Tsunamis, Earthquakes, hurricanes, or river floods cannot keep humans homeless. Even when their houses burn--as we watched the flames destroy thousands of houses in San Diego, California--their spirit, their humanity survives in the House of Being--which is the miracle of language.
Those who speak --not just English-- several languages must be blessed for they carry with them not only one house but many mansions of Being.
Retired. Former investment banker, Columbia University-educated, Vietnam Vet (67-68).
For the writing techniques I use, see Mary Duffy's e-book: Sentence Openers.
To read my book reviews of the Classics visit my blog: Writing To Live
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