Nature and normativity in Heidegger's ontological hermeneutics - part I

Abstract

The main topic of this paper is the hermeneutic approach of the concept of nature within Martin Heidegger's fundamental ontology. At first, we deal with some fundamental criticisms of Karl Löwith and Helmuth Plessner regarding the missing of nature in the existential analytic. Then, we identify the compounding moments of a philosophical project that can be named 'hermeneutics of nature'. We conclude thefirst part of the paper presenting the two methodological operations of this program: the privative interpretation and the circular interpretation that runs from theoretical concepts of the life sciences to ontological presuppositions and vice-versa. In the second part of paper we shall consider the positive developments in the hermeneutics of nature. Keywords: Heidegger, hermeneutics of nature, methodological issues.