Abstract This article investigates Martin Heidegger’s “philosophy of the heart” as a foundational bridge for a dialogue with Early Chinese thought, particularly Confucianism. Beginning with the late Heidegger’s focus on the heart as the “innermost being of the human,” the study analyzes how Heidegger utilizes this concept to challenge the Western metaphysical fixation on logos and representational rationality. By tracing the transition from “Being” ( Sein ) in Being and Time to the later concept of “Beyng” ( Seyn ), I demonstrate that the heart functions as the “clearing” ( Lichtung ) for an affective attunement to the world. The study identifies four tropes of the heart – openness, personhood, hearing, and affectivity – and compares them with the Early Chinese concepts of qing (情) and xin (心). I argue that both traditions reject a subject-object dichotomy in favor of a non-psychologistic, affective openness to the world. Ultimately, the “education of the heart” is presented as a shared philosophical practice for experiencing the unapparent meaningfulness of existence.
Karl Kraatz (Thu,) studied this question.
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