The problem of meaning by Nietzsche e Heidegger

Abstract

The paper will discuss an aspect of Heidegger’s confrontation with Nietzsche. In particular, it will analyse a lecture read by Heidegger at the end of 1930 and the lecture of the spring semester 1937 in conjunction with one of Heidegger’s unedited manuscript, the “Contribution to Philosophy” (1936-38). The argument I will develop is that the confrontation with Nietzsche forces Heidegger to rethink the problem of meaning, and above all the problem of the meaning of being, that is the most important topic of Heidegger’s ontology in Being and Time. The interpretation of Nietzsche’s thought plunged in fact Heidegger into a crisis, both philosophical and existential. Heidegger will emerge from that crisis by developing the experience of the “event” (Ereignis) and the ethical attitude of the “abandon” (Gelassenheit). At the end of the paper some critical remarks about Heidegger’s solution are exposed.