Heidegger, classical reception and the discourse of modernity: a crisis in thinking

Heidegger, perhaps the most influential philosopher of the last century, sought to do something with the Greeks never done before: to establish a new tradition of thinking. He saw in their literature and philosophy a concern with what is most essential and vital to man, and which has been glossed over and forgotten in modern thought. Controversial as his readings are, the exploration given here of Heidegger’s attempt to revive the spirit of Greek thinking reveals not only the fundamentally receptive nature of his philosophy but also the philosophical import of classical reception. While few would argue that Heidegger initiated a new tradition, he set in motion an intellectual crisis surrounding how the ills of modernity are rooted in modes of thought we must overcome. By making the Greeks the solution to this, Heidegger shifted the so-called ‘discourse of modernity’ to an assessment of the Greek’s impact on thinking today and their potential for us to think anew. As such, he made classical reception the vehicle for both understanding and critiquing the form of Modernity and its thinking. Therein lies the value of Heidegger for classical reception, because he gives it the intellectual impetus to confront what man is today.