Heidegger, "The Origin of the Work of Art"
I. The investigation begins with a hermeneutic circle. [17-20] 1
A. We must look for the origin of the work in the work.
1. To infer what art is from the work we must first determine what to examine, i.e. we must identify
something as a work of art.
2. But to do that, we must already know which objects are works of art and which are not.
3. But if we can do this successfully, we must already know what art is.
4. Thus, it appears that our investigation is moving in a circle by presupposing knowledge of what it is
we are trying to understand.
B. According to Heidegger, this circle is a "virtuous circle" not a "vicious circle". The recognition of the
circularity is a moment of truth, not a logical problem or an error on our part. What it means is that we
must learn to think differently. The question, then, is not how to get around the circle, but how to break
into it. [18f]
C. Heidegger suggests that we break into this circle by considering an actual work of art and looking
into the "thingly character of the work of art", one of a work's more obvious features.
II. The Thingly Character of the Work of Art. [20-39]
A. Any work of art is a "thing" of some sort. (A thing is that which is—that which is not simply nothing.)
But the work of art is something more as well. Heidegger suggests that it functions both allegorically,
i.e. as something more than the mere thing we see before us, and as a symbol, i.e. a "bringing to-
gether" of the thing and something else.
B. Three traditional interpretations of "thing" and the "thingliness of things". 2
1. Substance with properties or attributes: There is, going back to the Greeks, the concept of a thing
as a substance to which various qualities are attached, e.g. a chair (substance) which is red, made
of wood, has four legs, etc. (its qualities). These relations of substance and quality are expressed in
sentences by means of the grammatical subject, which identifies a particular thing or substance that
one is talking about, and the predicate, which characterizes the quality or property associated with
this thing. [22ff]
2. A unity of the "manifold" or bundle of sensations: There is also the notion of a thing as the unity or
bundle of sensations in the mind that provide us with a perception, or a thing as an object of
thought, e.g. an apple, unicorn or next week's reading assignment. [25ff]
3. Formed matter: Finally, there is a concept of a thing as matter that has a certain form imposed on
it. [26ff]
1 Page numbers in square brackets refer to the Hofstadter translation. See Poetry, Language, Thought, Martin Hei-
degger (trans. Albert Hofstadter), New York: Harper and Row, 1975.
2 "Thingliness" is another way of talking about the "inner nature" or essence of things, i.e. what makes them what
they are. As we'll see, Heidegger tries to talk about this without slipping into traditional ways of thinking and talking.
Thus, he does not want to talk about the property or quality of a thing that makes it the thing it is. That would amount
to a falling back into the old way of thinking about things, viz. as a "something" (substance) to which something else
(a property, characteristic, or quality) is attached.
Page 1 of 6 | owa-outline.doc
, C. While all three of these approaches to the nature of a thing are misleading, the notion of formed
matter contains a clue to the real nature of the things. The definition of the thing is derived from the
concept of equipment and the "equipmental being of equipment". 3 [29ff]
D. Equipment is intermediate between thing and work. To see this, we must do a phenomenological
analysis of a work of art. [32ff]
E. Search for the "equipmental character of equipment".
1. Consider a painting of a pair of peasant shoes by Van Gogh.
2. Equipmental character consists in its usefulness. Thus, we must consider the shoes as they are
used, not in some abstract or formal sense. [33]
3. The equipmental being of equipment is reliability. [34]
4. This is discovered by an imaginative engagement with Van Gogh's painting of a pair of shoes. In
other words, the work of art allowed us to understand "what shoes are in truth".4 [36]
5. Thus, the work of art has allowed the entity to emerge "into the unconcealedness [or "truth"] of its
being".
F. The nature of art is "the truth of beings setting itself to work". The work is not the reproduction of an
entity that happens to be present. It is "the reproduction of the thing's general essence". [36]
G. If we look for a thingly substructure in the work, we take the work as equipment (that which is useful
for some purpose) with artistic quality added on to the substance or substructure (thing).
3 Like the "thingliness of things", Heidegger's notion of the "equipmental being of equipment" is his way of talking
about the "real nature" of equipment, its essence, what makes it equipment.
4 Notice how, in the description of the peasant shoes, Heidegger includes a reference to the earth to which the
shoes belong, and the world of the peasant woman in which they are "protected". This distinction will play a central
role in Heidegger's discussion of art.
Page 2 of 6 | owa-outline.doc
I. The investigation begins with a hermeneutic circle. [17-20] 1
A. We must look for the origin of the work in the work.
1. To infer what art is from the work we must first determine what to examine, i.e. we must identify
something as a work of art.
2. But to do that, we must already know which objects are works of art and which are not.
3. But if we can do this successfully, we must already know what art is.
4. Thus, it appears that our investigation is moving in a circle by presupposing knowledge of what it is
we are trying to understand.
B. According to Heidegger, this circle is a "virtuous circle" not a "vicious circle". The recognition of the
circularity is a moment of truth, not a logical problem or an error on our part. What it means is that we
must learn to think differently. The question, then, is not how to get around the circle, but how to break
into it. [18f]
C. Heidegger suggests that we break into this circle by considering an actual work of art and looking
into the "thingly character of the work of art", one of a work's more obvious features.
II. The Thingly Character of the Work of Art. [20-39]
A. Any work of art is a "thing" of some sort. (A thing is that which is—that which is not simply nothing.)
But the work of art is something more as well. Heidegger suggests that it functions both allegorically,
i.e. as something more than the mere thing we see before us, and as a symbol, i.e. a "bringing to-
gether" of the thing and something else.
B. Three traditional interpretations of "thing" and the "thingliness of things". 2
1. Substance with properties or attributes: There is, going back to the Greeks, the concept of a thing
as a substance to which various qualities are attached, e.g. a chair (substance) which is red, made
of wood, has four legs, etc. (its qualities). These relations of substance and quality are expressed in
sentences by means of the grammatical subject, which identifies a particular thing or substance that
one is talking about, and the predicate, which characterizes the quality or property associated with
this thing. [22ff]
2. A unity of the "manifold" or bundle of sensations: There is also the notion of a thing as the unity or
bundle of sensations in the mind that provide us with a perception, or a thing as an object of
thought, e.g. an apple, unicorn or next week's reading assignment. [25ff]
3. Formed matter: Finally, there is a concept of a thing as matter that has a certain form imposed on
it. [26ff]
1 Page numbers in square brackets refer to the Hofstadter translation. See Poetry, Language, Thought, Martin Hei-
degger (trans. Albert Hofstadter), New York: Harper and Row, 1975.
2 "Thingliness" is another way of talking about the "inner nature" or essence of things, i.e. what makes them what
they are. As we'll see, Heidegger tries to talk about this without slipping into traditional ways of thinking and talking.
Thus, he does not want to talk about the property or quality of a thing that makes it the thing it is. That would amount
to a falling back into the old way of thinking about things, viz. as a "something" (substance) to which something else
(a property, characteristic, or quality) is attached.
Page 1 of 6 | owa-outline.doc
, C. While all three of these approaches to the nature of a thing are misleading, the notion of formed
matter contains a clue to the real nature of the things. The definition of the thing is derived from the
concept of equipment and the "equipmental being of equipment". 3 [29ff]
D. Equipment is intermediate between thing and work. To see this, we must do a phenomenological
analysis of a work of art. [32ff]
E. Search for the "equipmental character of equipment".
1. Consider a painting of a pair of peasant shoes by Van Gogh.
2. Equipmental character consists in its usefulness. Thus, we must consider the shoes as they are
used, not in some abstract or formal sense. [33]
3. The equipmental being of equipment is reliability. [34]
4. This is discovered by an imaginative engagement with Van Gogh's painting of a pair of shoes. In
other words, the work of art allowed us to understand "what shoes are in truth".4 [36]
5. Thus, the work of art has allowed the entity to emerge "into the unconcealedness [or "truth"] of its
being".
F. The nature of art is "the truth of beings setting itself to work". The work is not the reproduction of an
entity that happens to be present. It is "the reproduction of the thing's general essence". [36]
G. If we look for a thingly substructure in the work, we take the work as equipment (that which is useful
for some purpose) with artistic quality added on to the substance or substructure (thing).
3 Like the "thingliness of things", Heidegger's notion of the "equipmental being of equipment" is his way of talking
about the "real nature" of equipment, its essence, what makes it equipment.
4 Notice how, in the description of the peasant shoes, Heidegger includes a reference to the earth to which the
shoes belong, and the world of the peasant woman in which they are "protected". This distinction will play a central
role in Heidegger's discussion of art.
Page 2 of 6 | owa-outline.doc
