Skip to main content
Skip to main menu Skip to spotlight region Skip to secondary region Skip to UGA region Skip to Tertiary region Skip to Quaternary region Skip to unit footer

Slideshow

"Heidegger and the Environmental Aesthetics of Everyday Artifacts" - Magdalena Holy-Luczaj (Visiting Fulbright Scholar)

Magdalena Holy-Luczaj
Magdalena Holy Luczaj
Philosophy
University of Information Technology and Management, Rzeszow Poland
Peabody Hall, Room 115

This paper reexamines authenticity as the category which environmental aesthetics can employ to reconceptualize our aesthetic judgment of everyday artifacts and how, by doing so, that contributes to reducing ecologically harmful effects of consumerism. To this end, I draw upon Heidegger’s notion of authenticity (Eigentlichkeit) and the ambiguous position of usable artifacts in his philosophy. I shall unpack this ambiguity by explaining that it mirrors tensions in Heidegger’s idea of truth as inherently agonistic dis-closure. I argue that although everyday artifacts – as opposed to artworks – are situated closer to the pole of hiddenness, they can participate aesthetically in revealing being. Elucidating this requires re-appropriating Heidegger’s concept of being ‘authentic’ as being ‘one’s own’ (eigen). I show that applying the category of (Heideggerian) authenticity to everyday artifacts should consist in unfolding their ontological uniqueness, which is irrespective of their ontic replicability. Finally, I develop an understanding of authenticity by exploring environmental-aesthetical implications of some of Heidegger’s remarks on things related to their susceptibility to changes.

Magdalena Holy-Luczaj is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow, Poland. She works primarily in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, especially at its crossroads with environmental ethics. Her research interests include also posthumanism in contemporary philosophy. She has published articles in Environmental ValuesEthics & the EnvironmentEnvironmental Ethics, and other journals on environmental philosophy.

Support Philosophy at UGA

The Department of Philosophy appreciates your financial support. Your gift is important to us and helps support critical opportunities for students and faculty alike, including lectures, travel support, and any number of educational events that augment the classroom experience. Click here to learn more.

EVERY DOLLAR CONTRIBUTED TO THE DEPARTMENT HAS A DIRECT IMPACT ON OUR STUDENTS AND FACULTY.