Keywords
ontology
Heidegger
phenomenology
mimesis
How to Cite
Abstract
This article aims to reassess the ontological status of material in the work of art through a line of thought extending from Plato to Martin Heidegger. The central claim advanced is that, within the Western aesthetic tradition, material has been systematically suppressed, and that this suppression rests upon a persistent ontological presupposition that continues up to Heidegger. In Plato, material is relegated to a plane of appearance that distances from truth; in Aristotle, it loses its ontological autonomy as the bearer of form. Although Roman Ingarden and Nicolai Hartmann transform this inheritance, they still situate material as a lower stratum that does not generate meaning. Within the framework of the concepts of earth (Erde) and world (Welt) developed in Heidegger’s seminar “The Origin of the Work of Art,” the possibility of rethinking material is examined. Afterwards, the following problem is posed: Has Heidegger truly managed to release material into its ontological autonomy?
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