Heidegger’s Approach to Truth...Jinto E. A. (0924604)

Heidegger's Approach to Truth

Heidegger starts his discussion of truth by analyzing the common meaning of the word 'truth', i.e. logical correspondence. Although he analyzes this kind of truth, which is the outcome of the correspondence between a judgment and the fact, he never totally negates it. As will be explicated further, Heidegger does his best to provide an ontological foundation for this definition.

Heidegger emphasizes that his main argument in this treatise is "the essence of truth" and the issue of the essence of truth is in no way related to the fact that truth is a practical experience, an economic calculation, political knowledge, or a scientific or artistic truth.. In his search for the essence of truth, Heidegger deems it necessary to pursue the common and generally known definition of truth to its latest origin, that is, its medieval one. According to him, truth involves correspondence and agreement.

In his Being and Time, Heidegger also points out that if we want to use the term truth to a proposition or judgment, we have to interpret in terms of to unveiling. In this regard, a proposition is true when it does not conceal the existence of a thing and allows it to reveal and unveil itself.

A more important point Heidegger raises is that a thing is an object when it presents itself as an object before us while it preserves its position as a thing and maintains its identity as fixed item. Thus, in order to issue a verdict about a thing, that thing should unveil itself and in order for that thing to do so, it should enter a realm called the 'unveiling'. Now the question is when a thing presents and unveils itself in an open space, where does a proposition bring the necessary rules from so that it can correspond with it belongs to?

As an answer to this question, Heidegger asserts that the unveiling of things is due to the position man holds. Man's existence, as it is essentially outward, gives the opportunity to other beings to encounter him and reveal themselves. Therefore, the unveiling is bilateral. That is to say, as objects unveil and present themselves before man, man is also open and unveiled towards them and pays attention to them.