Abstract

ABSTRACTThere is only one reference to art in Heidegger’s Being and Time but art is to the fore in his later writings. In this article the path from the earlier to the later writings is traced such that two surprising conclusions can be drawn: first, that Heidegger’s later thinking about art is powerfully pre-figured in the single reference to poetry in Being and Time; and, second, that Heidegger’s later thinking about art does not develop a new discourse on aesthetics but, rather, a discourse that re-visions our self-understanding by elaborating an essential tie—already stressed in Being and Time—between our Being and dwelling. The discussion of Heidegger’s philosophy of art as a philosophy of settlement is developed through a renewed assessment of Heidegger’s famous interpretation of Van Gogh’s picture of a pair of old shoes. It is argued that the picture plays a twin role in Heidegger’s analysis: drawing together the threads of Heidegger’s engagement with our time as belonging to the technological age, while also illustrating Heidegger’s conception of the creation of art not as the production of an object but as involved in the opening up of a world. Together these threads invite us to reflect that, even though the “old rootedness” is being lost in this age, art might still contribute to creating a new settlement in our time—with technology.