The Hand of the Gaze: Heidegger Between Theory and Praxis

An Abstract

The article tracks down Heidegger’s etymological interpretation of the terms “theory” and “praxis”. As opposed to the traditional metaphysical conception of the two terms, which puts the one on top of the other, Heidegger’s interpretation, using phrases of the Greek poet Pindar, shows eventually that in the Greek original employment of the terms (theoria and pragma), they mean more or less the same. From a strict phenomenological point of view, both are used for naming the positioning of beings in the locus of truth and Being (the space of aletheia). In that sense, as opposed to our usual conception, metaphysical in its essence, there is no hierarchical difference between the two. The difference that nevertheless exists is a modal one: Whereas theoria is the positioning of beings within the locus of truth by means of the gaze, pragma is the very same positioning by means of the hand. In both cases, an original and authentic relation to beings is differentiated from a non-original and non-authentic one: In the case of the gaze, Heidegger differentiates between what can be called the authentic “meeting” and the non-authentic “conquering” gaze. In the case of the hand, Heidegger differentiates between the authentic usage of beings (Zuhandenheit) and the in-authentic calculation and measuring of beings (Vorhandenheit). This etymological clarification of the Greek source of “theory” and “praxis” can help us even today to ease and soften the ongoing tension between the “theoretical” and the “practical” human attitudes, opening the way for a possible union of the two.