Martin Heidegger's
philosophy seeks to humanize
scientific concepts. His main goal is to make us see things not as
objects defined in terms of science, but as tools that are fundamentally embedded into our lifestyles. In the essay, the Thing, he writes about how man-made things lose their
meaning when one sees them on
television. He rather wants them to only be understood in terms of their physical presence and the
functions that they offer. Such true understanding of the physicality and presence of things would also serve to remind one of nature's intrinsic participation in the human
process of making things. Heeding this knowledge, the human
mind would be encouraged consider the benevolence of
nature and perhaps even its
divinity.
In his essay entitled
The Thing,
Martin Heidegger shows how a man created "thing" is defined by its
nearness and its offering of gifts to its potential
user. According to him, the most important quality of a
human-created object is its ability to offer human beings the
opportunity to use that very thing in order to perform a function that would not be possible without it. Thus what defines a jug as a "thing" is its
offering of the
gift of serving as a container that holds and a liquid such as
wine and dispenses it at will to those who want to drink it.
The possibility of a
function is what defines a "
thing" according to Heidegger instead of merely its
representation. The representation of a
jug on television is not a "thing" for the
viewer since the
television jug does is not close enough to offer its services as a tool for
liquid containing and pouring.
It is thus that nearness becomes an important
criterion for determing whether something is a thing or not for a given person. This idea negates the commonly held view that
television brings us closer to
distant things. Heidegger believes that although the objects we see on television do really exist, they are not "things" for us but only for the people who are located close enough to them to be able to use them.
Television hides the true nature of man-created
objects by disclosing only their visual nature. Rather than merely viewing the visual properties of a man-made object like a television screen, beholding a thing up close would make one aware of its tangible physical
material. Seeing representations of things can often distract us from thinking about how these things were made. The focus on the raw material rather than the form of a thing may serve to remind that human-made things bear the traces of both human and non-human
creation. This is because while man has shaped the materials i.e clay with his own hands to transform them into a thing. i.e jug, the materials themselves were not his creation.
"When and in what way do things appear as things? They do not appear
only by means of human making. .." writes Heidegger and then gives several examples of how a thing, jug or otherwise, unites human and natural factors. "The dark slumber of the earth receives the
rain and dew of the sky," he writes, showing that the earthly material that contributes to the
creation of a jug is shaped by the forces of
nature.
By realizing that the thing that offers him its function is not only of his own making, its beholder would feel indebted to the forces of nature that have given him the
raw material to fashion his creation. To illustrate this
thought, Heidegger returns again to the example of the
jug. Heidegger says that the use of the jug is a ritual that expresses
gratitude to the non-human forces that made its creation possible.
According to Heidegger, a primitive man who believed nature to be a divine force would thank the
divinity for her assistance in creating the thing of a
jug. To express his
thank you, he would pour out the drink contained in the jug to offer it as a
sacrifice to the
divinity. Heidegger describes this offering in the following sentence: "In the gift of the
outpouring that is a libation, the divinities... receive back the gift of giving as the gift of donation."
The process of the sacrifice demonstrates the
primitive man's respect for the role of nature in the creation of the "thing." Thus, the creation and the use of thing
symbolically "gathered" (*see note below) or brought together man and the divinities of nature. Heidegger writes that "in the
gift of outpouring ... divinities and mortals dwell together all at once" because "they are betrothed and entrusted to one another" in the process.
Heidegger is not encouraging the reader to believe that nature is
divine. He is rather reminding him that a "thing" like a jug or any "thing" for that matter should serve as a testament to the benevolence of forces that provided for its creation, regardless of whether these forces be
divine or merely
biological.
Note: It is rather interesting that Heidegger uses
etymology to support his arguments. Heidegger believes that the German for thing, "ding", originally meant a gathering of god and men. Not being a
linguist, I can neither validate or reject this supposition.
The essay "The Thing" can be found in the "Poetry, Language, and Thought"
anthology of Heidegger's essays.