theory and practice in heidegger's thought and an attempt to read it as intercultural philosophy

this essay attempts to express the point that in martin heidegger’s thought, the primordial relationship between man and the world is constituted through action. in the field of action, man, because of his being situated inside the tool-structure of the world, is provided with meaning, but is not too absorbed in theoretical contemplation. as soon as some kind of interruption is introduced in this structure and relationship, when things are detached from their underlying nexus of relations, an opportunity is opened for theoretical thinking. this theoretical tendency results in the mediation on tools, regardless of their relationships, which bestows meaning. ethics, as heidegger understands, is based on care. it is dependent on the existential understandings of the thinkers in different historical eras, which is then systematized. ethical systems in the time of crisis, i.e. in a time of the lack of existential meanings, are severed from their tenets, and thus lose any kind of obligatory quality. accordingly, establishing new ethical imperatives depends on a being liberated from the crisis and renewing the bind with being. intercultural philosophy, through its rejection of absolutism and egoism, can have a close intimacy with heidegger’s ideas on the relationship between theory and praxis.