The critique of onto-theo-logy: Kierkegaard and later Heidegger

Thesis

My thesis looks to the ongoing debate regarding the relationship between Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1854) and Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). Although there has been significant research into their relationship, there has been little that engages with the continued resonances between Kierkegaard and Heidegger’s later work. My thesis looks specifically at the critiques of onto-theo-logy offered by Kierkegaard and the later Heidegger. I argue that there are significant areas of structural resonance between them, with Heidegger often articulating neopagan content. They each argue that the problems of onto-theo-logical thinking manifest in society, leading to a problematic self-understanding of its members. They each show the intertwined nature of repetition/retrieval and the restarting of philosophy, the leap, and the moment or event. I further contend that each of them identifies the problematic nature of the autonomous ideal subject who is supposed to be a self-determining, self-causing originator of their own destiny. I suggest that they each present a critique of linear causality, finding the subject-object dichotomy problematic. I develop this to suggest that there is an element of critique of the Subject as a cause in productionist metaphysics and that each suggests ways in which artistic production must be considered a participation in aiding the thing into being rather than a mode of ownership and a locale of meaning for what is produced. This is an unusual approach to the issue of their relationships. I also argue that each sees a call to which the individual responds to leap out of onto-theo-logy and into participation and reciprocity in the revelation of truth.

Authors: Davies, VL

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-e2gvxknzk
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Kierkegaard; ontotheology; Heidegger
• Subjects: Theology; Continental philosophy; Ontotheology Critique