Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

Conference | Paper

Uexküll and Heidegger on the Human and Animal Environment

Mintautas Gutauskas

Wednesday 4 September 2024

12:15 - 12:55

TU-Small Venue

Uexküll has been the most influential biologist for philosophers. His attempt to develop a Kantian approach to animal life, his thesis that animal life is structured by the environment, and his reflections on the space and time of different animal species were very important for Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and many other phenomenologists. But Uexküll also left many questions unanswered. Depending on the focus of the philosopher, Uexküll’s insights serve to support different theses. With Uexküll it is possible to show the similarities of human and animal life (Merleau-Ponty), but also the radical differences (Heidegger, Agamben). It was Heidegger who developed his thesis of anthropological difference on the basis of Uexküll’s insights. The presentation will show the importance of Uexküll for phenomenology and Heidegger, which insights are important (notion of Umwelt, functional cycle, theory of meaning) and which questions were left open (possibility of interspecies communication, how is the human world constituted). The second part of the presentation is devoted to Heidegger. Phenomenological and metaphysical aspects of Heidegger’s thinking will be presented. Heidegger was very attentive to the mystery of animal life and tried to define the limits of human experience through the critique of the theory of empathy. But on the other hand, he had made metaphysical decision about the essence of man and was involved in anthropological machine. It will be shown how he built his thesis of difference of essence, between human world and animal, on weltarm and weltbildend.