On the Possible Meeting of Strangers: A Reading of Heidegger and Arab Thought [Heidegger et la pensée arabe]

Abstract

Heidegger's criticism of Western metaphysics is based on the way that this approach neglected the fundamental question of entities, which Heidegger defines as the essence of nihilism. Additionally, Heidegger also criticizes the rationalist conception of humanity, one that is predicated on the representational act, on modernity and "instrumental rationality", a term later adopted by the Frankfurt School. This ignorance/neglect of being is organically bound up with the ontotheology, representational rationality and ideas of hegemonic control which the project of Western metaphysics represents.