CONCLUSION
Martin Heidegger lived at a time in history when man drifted away from his destiny. The ‘will-to-power’ marked the thinking of the time. Humankind raised itself to the center of reference for beings. It not only proposed meaning to objects, but also controlled them to suit its disposition. By becoming the ultimate reference point, it imposed itself upon beings and referred them to its own purposes. Modern man has become the ‘self-imposing com-poser’ of all beings, absolutely establishing his complete domination over everything.
1 The net-result is that the presence of beings has become a representation in and for the consciousness of man.2 Thus, man’s reason has become the supreme arbitrator of knowledge, and logic has dominated man’s interpretation of beings. It, in turn, has led to a take-over of man and his life by technicity. This is the fundamental attitude by which every being, including man, becomes a commodity and a raw material. Scientific discoveries and technology are the instruments to actualize this attitude of technicity.3 Led by these man has given free reign to science and technology which, become scientism and technologism, have outgrown the human capacity to cope with them and turned him into a victim.Such a technological culture, based on rationalism, has made man concerned about only the surface aspect of reality, forgetting its depth dimension. Having become superficial, there followed a breakdown in every sphere of human existence. Since the unity of man was fragmented, it, in turn, led to the fragmentation of communities, societies and nations. Genuine personal, inter-personal and intra-personal relationships became a thing of the past. People were no more ‘straight-forward’. Everyone fixed his eyes on the other and watched for his next move: every level of relationship was characterized by a tense watching of one another, a spying on each other and a mutual overhearing. In the international arena today man uses sophisticated technologies, such as satellites and other information instruments to pry into the secrets of other nations. Similar thing happen both in the personal and interpersonal realms, by way of telephone tapping, bugging and using similar means. Formalism and legalism, rather than genuineness, has become the rule that guides human relationships. Man does no longer consider the other as a ‘thou’, but instead as an ‘it’ that can be used and exploited for one’s self-gratification and advantage.
The breakdown of genuine relationships at every level of man’s existence due to the attitude of technicity makes man unsentimental and business-like in his outlook on life. He views reality pragmatically and in terms of utility, in which terms the goal of every enterprise of man is to achieve maximum utility and benefit. So man goes about everything with meticulous planning and careful calculation in order to turn every circumstance to his advantage. The ultimate goal of such an endeavor is to attain the control of total power for oneself. We find striking examples in the realms of politics and business. In order to achieve and retain political power and political office, man today assassinates not only the character but even the life of a political opponents. Similarly, the business-world uses high-handed methods to sign business contracts. Thus, life becomes a constant struggle for power and a struggle to succeed. The Darwinian principle of ‘survival of the fittest’ and the Nietzschean motto of ‘will-to-power’ are the operative principles that guide men today. Such a mind-set leads to intrigues, manipulations, cheating, murders and even large scale wars. These attitudes degrade humanity, disrespect the human person and disregard his dignity. Martin Heidegger saw these realities concretized in the Germany of Hitler. Heidegger himself fell victim to such thinking in part of 1933 and 1934 when he supported Nazi power.
Learning from his own mistake and reflecting on the history of his times, Martin Heidegger realized that modern man has cut himself away from the true ground of existence. Being lost in the oblivion of the care of everyday living and living a life only to succeed and overpower others, man has no time to "stand and stare" or to wonder at the deeper dimensions of reality. Since man has identified his destiny with the tangible, the pleasurable and the useful, he has lost sight of the call to be authentic and genuine by contemplating Transcendence. In his attempt to bring the transcendental realm under his control, man attempts to exploit the earth, to control the sky, to encapsulate God in metaphysical and rational concepts and to presents himself as the ultimate source of everything, denying his mortal nature. In doing so, man has tried to prove to himself that there is no Transcendence beyond and above him.
Martin Heidegger addresses these men of our contemporary times though his philosophy of Being. He gives the message that the true destiny of man is attained only when he moves from his life of care and opens himself to the mystery of Being that is manifested in history. Man only needs to achieve this mindset to discern and discover the self-gift of Being. To acquire this mindset, says Heidegger, one need not ignore the values of science and technology, nor should one return to pre-technological living. But it is very important that the human person guard against the attitude of technicity, which attempts to take over every dimension of human existence. Man must not allow science and technology to turn into scientism and technologism. He must recognize that there is a depth, the realm of Transcendence, in which the mystery of Being is manifested. This realm is beyond the control of technicity, and cannot be explained by scientific method and technological discoveries. Man must see that the metaphysical, scientific and technological thinking of the past centuries has made him forget this depth dimension, and that this has led ultimately to the fragmentation of every dimension of reality. Now he must search for this missing depth dimension and effect the integration of all facets of human existence. We cannot come in touch with this mystery dimension of reality by our rationalizing and technical know-how. Openness to the mystery of Being requires a listening attitude, which is different from the exploiting-controlling technological attitude (technicity). The mystery of Being reveals itself; we must learn to wait and, as Heidegger calls it, "to be on the way".
The path to experience Being, thus, implies a ‘step-back’ from metaphysical, scientific, technological, conceptual, representational and rational thinking, and a leap into the primordial realm of Being (Ereignis). This leap is an "unabridged-entry", an entry no rational thought can bring about. No one can enter this realm unless he learns to recollect the giving of Being and has an attitude of thanks-giving for Being’s self-gift. This calls man to move into the realm of intuition and mysticism. Man is called to make a leap into the "unthought source" and to a region that stands beyond, and is the foundation of, divergent philosophical and religious traditions. This primordial realm is beyond every tradition, ‘ism’ and ideology, but in some way is the origin and source of all such ‘isms’ each of which in a limited way points to this ultimate realm. J. L. Mehta says this about the realm:
4This ‘region of all regions’ . . . is itself above all regional loyalties and the Babel of conflicting tongues. It is the realm of that universality and simplicity of primordial truth, the happening of aletheia . . . where alone divergent traditions, disfranchised of their exclusive claims and yet without losing their own identity, can meet together as one, as belonging-together in the Self-same [Being].
According to Heidegger, the reason for the divided and multi-polar world is that man has forgotten for centuries this primordial realm of being, which is the ‘home’ (Heimat) that unifies all diversities, at the same time giving each its own difference and uniqueness. Have lost touch with this realm, man has forgotten the original unity of all in Being. With the development of technology, especially in the areas of information and communication, the world has become a global village. Yet paradoxically it stands divided more than ever before. Heidegger believed that real unity cannot be brought about by this type of technological and manmade uniformity. In the same way, neither can philosophical, cultural, religious, political and linguistic differences that isolate nations and people from each other, be done away with by attempting to bring these matters in international forums for discussion and by ironing out compromise formulae for unity. As a matter of fact our present day world offers many such attempts under the auspices of the United Nations organization. But still it is a sad fact that in spite of all such efforts, not many solutions are found for most of the problems of division that exist in the world today. According to Heidegger, agreements arrived at in this manner are superficial and do not hold for long because the world has forgotten the fundamental unity of all in Being. Unless man opens himself to this primordial realm, no lasting unity can be achieved.
Martin Heidegger visualized a world civilization in which East and West, North and South, black, white or the colored live a life of unity in spite of their differences. He believed that world civilization can become a ‘home’ for all, not by way of technical uniformity or any other type of peripheral and superficial unity, but only by re-discovering the original unity of all in the primordial realm of Being. Until and unless humankind makes the leap into this primordial realm of fundamental unity the ideal of the unification of humankind will never be actualized.
5It was to re-discover this original unity of all in Being that Martin Heidegger proposed his path. He was convinced that if man follows this path, he would become the thinker of Being, the dweller in the nearness of Being and the seer of the truth of Being. As a thinker of Being, man would be able to move beyond representational thinking and the dominative nature of technicity. He would be able to order his relationship with entities in the right perspective and be open to the mystery of Being. As a dweller in the nearness of Being, man would be able to dwell in the realm of Being, by returning to the true source of his existence, viz., Being. Besides, he would be able to preserve the manifestation of Being by saving the earth as the earth, by receiving the sky as the sky, by waiting on divinities as divinities and by initiating his own nature as a person moving towards death. In the process man learns the true wisdom of Being that unifies all. As a seer, man sees his relationship of belonging-together to Being, the relationship of difference between Being and beings, and the manifestation of Being in the spatio-temporal history. In so doing man realizes his vocation as the shepherd of Being in himself and in beings.
When man becomes a shepherd, he is aware of his vocation in life. His goal is not to manipulate and dominate others; neither is it to exploit nature. He sees everything from the mystery perspective of Being. Man experiences every good he has in life, whether it be a person or a thing, in terms of the fourfold dimensions of Being, viz., as the fruit of earth, as the gift of the sky, as that which is blessed by the divinities and as that which is made for the happiness of mortal men. Seen in this perspective, man realizes that nothing should be destroyed, but must be preserved in its genuine being so that it can continue to delight the generations of mortals yet to come. When man arrives at this level of experience, he will experience the inner unity of everyone with each other and all beings in Being. In this state, man would be able to live in depth unity with all in spite of differences as the wisdom gained by man opens him to the fundamental oneness of all, and he is able to overcome subject-centeredness, ‘will-to-power’ and all such dominative tendencies. Therefore, for Heidegger, only the path of the thinking of Being, dwelling in the nearness of Being and seeing the truth of Being can guarantee the emergence of one world civilization in spite of the many diversities, and provide a ‘home’ for all humankind. In such a state, man attains his ultimate goal: the experience of unity within himself, unity with others in interpersonal relationships, and absolute unity of all in Being.
NOTES
1. Cf. HW, pp. 265-266.
2. Cf. ibid., p. 281.
3. Cf. ibid., pp. 267-268, 271.
4. Cf. J.L. Mehta, Martin Heidegger: The Way and the Vision, pp. 643 - 644.
5. Cf. Martin Heidegger Denkerfahrungen (Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1983), p. 137 (Hereafter: DE).