The Early Greeks’ Confrontation with the Asiatic

In the 1930s, Heidegger remarks in a militant tone on the confrontation of early Greek thinking with the Asiatic [1934/35, 134; 1936c, 146; 1937b, 21]. These remarks may be shocking to commentators who propose favourable interpretations of Heidegger’s Asian connection. It is difficult to clarify the precise connotation of the word “Asiatic.” Charles Bambach claims with reference to these speeches,

[Asia] stands as a name for the barbaric, the rootless, the allochthonicthose whose roots are not indigenous but who come from another place. For Heidegger, Asia comes to signify pure alterity, the otherness that threatens the preservation of the homeland. (2003, 177)

It seems, as will be shown in this chapter, that Heidegger is not totally blind to the historical concreteness of this word in the context of the early Greeks’ confrontation with the Asiatic. Therefore, the “Asiatic” is not simply an abstract label for pure alterity. However, Heidegger may have deliberately left the designation of the Asiatic vague and thus creates room for drawing implications for the contemporary world situation from that historical event of overcoming the Asiatic. When Heidegger remarks on the early Greeks’ confrontation with the Asiatic on his first trip to Greece in 1962 [1962a, 228], the militant tone has been softened. In the following pages, I examine these enigmatic remarks. As a contrast, I investigate his thoughts on the confrontation with French thinking.