The Heideggerian account of the ontotheological constitution of Western metaphysics has been extremely influential for contemporary philosophy of religion and for philosophical perspectives on theology and the divine. This paper introduces and contrasts two central strategies for approaching the question of the divine in a nonor post-ontotheological manner. The first and more established approach is that of post-Heideggerian hermeneutics and deconstruction, inspired by Heidegger’s suggestion of a “theology without the word ‘being’” and by his later notions of an “ultimate god” and of “divinities” as one of the four axes of the fourfold (Geviert). Here, the divine is no longer articulated in terms of the supreme or absolute being, but as one of the interdependent dimensions of finite and contextual meaningful presence. The more recent approach introduced by Alain Badiou and Quentin Meillassoux dissociates itself from the Heideggerian hermeneutics of finitude and adopts mathematics as its basic ontological model. Rather than focusing on meaning and sense, Badiou and Meillassoux replace ontotheological metaphysics with materialist frameworks. With regard to the divine, this approach leads either to a contemporary version of atheism (Badiou) or to the reintroduction of a divine entity, but now a merely possible and contingent one (Meillassoux).

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Seminare (Übungen) 1937/38 und 1941/42

From the Ultimate God to the Virtual God: Post-Ontotheological Perspectives on the Divine in Heidegger, Badiou, and Meillassoux

The influence of Saint Augustine in the existential analysis of Being and Time is highly recognized and is always a source of fruitful research. Our work, however, will try to discover the elongated shadow of the bishop of Hippo in the definition of the task of thinking, and therefore in II Heidegger, from what we will call the salvation of the vital-existential moment of the experience of the encounter with the absolute. It is investigated here, then, the possibility that the fundamental notes on which, in our opinion, the mystical experience that is inferred in the Confessions (the distance of man from things, the relativization of worldly affairs and the self-forgetfulness) can count as formal indicators of what is the heideggerian notion of meditative thinking.

/pdf/la-mistica-y-sus-indicaciones-formales-para-el-pensar-san-4bvrf2yzc1.pdf

La mística y sus indicaciones formales para el pensar. San Agustín en el II Heidegger

Heidegger’s philosophical work is driven by a radical criticism of the idealist view that being is posited by the human subject. However, in developing his conception of the finitude of being, Heidegger finds decisive sources of inspiration in the work of Schelling and Hegel. His account of truth as a concealing disclosure of meaning comes unexpectedly close to Hegel’s concept of negativity; this leads him to gradually radicalize his critique of Hegel’s understanding of the concept and to redefine philosophical thinking. Heidegger finds an ally in Schelling and especially in the distinction between being as “ground of existence” and being “insofar as it exists.” He uses this distinction in his efforts not only to undermine the metaphysical quest for self-foundation but also to articulate his own conception of ethos.

Seminare (Übungen) 1937/38 und 1941/42

Citations

From the Ultimate God to the Virtual God: Post-Ontotheological Perspectives on the Divine in Heidegger, Badiou, and Meillassoux

La mística y sus indicaciones formales para el pensar. San Agustín en el II Heidegger

Heidegger and German Idealism (Fichte, Schelling, Hegel): Subjectivity and Finitude