Heidegger as Mediterraneanist

Abstract

Western philosophy has often been permeated by Mediterranean imagery. Even so, the writings of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger might not seem the obvious place for a Mediterranean that is more than an occasional simile. We argue, however, that, especially in his writings on art, Heidegger does articulate a vision of the Mediterranean that is fundamental to his thought. It takes in Provence, Heidegger’s adoptive homeland, seen through the paintings executed there by Paul Cézanne; Greece, the homeland of philosophy; and the Mediterranean Sea as the link between the two areas. To those interpreters of Heidegger who have seen him as rooted in German soil, we offer an alternative reading, in which he is philosophically most at home on the shores of the Mediterranean.