Research

Summary

Aquinas and Heidegger’s Ontotheology

My article aims to understand what Heidegger’s ontotheology criticism of metaphysics is and then to see if Thomas Aquinas’ metaphysics is a victim of his criticism. Heidegger’s “Identity and Difference” seems to criticize the ontotheologian as naively thinking that the notion of being derives from beings. In truth, it is the other way around - being is a projection of the freedom of Dasein. Hence, unwittingly, the ontotheologian formulates an all too human understanding of God. Heidegger famously complains, “Man can neither fall to his knees in awe nor can he play music and dance before this God.” In order to understand Heidegger’s claim that beings derive from the notion of being, the article goes on to investigate what Heidegger’s “The Basic Problems of Phenomenology” calls the universality of Dasein’s productive comportment. I argue that the presencing of beings outstrips productive comportment and so Heidegger fails to prove its universality. Finally, the article explains that by understanding the notion of being as a sameness within the differences of beings, Aquinas can begin his metaphysics from beings and reach God before whom the ontotheologian can experience both awe and joy.