3.

Overcoming Cartesianism
We have seen that Heidegger's criticism goes to the heart of Cartesianism and of
the modern age, undermining their ontological basis, concept of truth, and cent
ral metaphor. But we should not regard this criticism as aimed at destroying the
tradition. Rather its intent is to broaden its base.
As is well known, Heidegger described his relation to the tradition by the stron
g terms Destruktion, Abbau, Verbindung and Uberwindung. (3) These are not the sa
me of Hegel's Aufhebung. For Heidegger, overcoming is not a forward movement whe
re the irrelevant is left behind and it does not contain the notion of progress.
Heidegger's aim is not to destroy the tradition but to broaden it and to reinte
rpret its major tenets in light of what, in his view, has been left out as the t
radition was formed.
Heidegger's attitude to the tradition is intimately related to his view of histo
ry. Following Hegel's insights and the Nietzschean concept of 'monumental histor
y', Heidegger regards History as the manifestation of Being through human acts.
He sees the works of poets and thinkers, great works of art, literature, and phi
losophy, including Cartesianism, as links in the chain of History.
It follows that Heidegger's aim in criticizing the tradition is not so much to s
how that Descartes and Cartesianism were wrong in making man the subject and sol
e center of meaning, but rather to restore to the tradition important elements w
hich he believes it had forgotten. The Cartesian subject cannot be destroyed bec
ause it is a historical product and a revelation of Being.
It is with this in mind that we must consider his treatment of the subject and o
f truth.
In de-centering the subject Heidegger is not trying to destroy the idea of a fou
ndation, as might be assumed from some postmodern developments. He does not prop
ose a homogeneous mass without differentiation or a Dionysian flow of reality. F
or he does not eliminate the difference between beings themselves or between bei
ngs and Being, but rather brings it to the forefront of the ontological debate