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84] THE PHiLosoPpHY oF Eco-PotLIrics towards the latter. Thiele, however, rightly points out that identification and self-realisation are perhaps not the most apt concepts for the expression of his aspirations. In any case, it is the Norwegian philosopher’s indisputable achievement to have recognised that for ecophilosophy the relation between man and nature is fundamentally an ontological issue, not an ethical one: we need to rethink who or what man is and how he relates to nature. Some adherents of ecology find an original answer to these questions in the writings of Martin Heidegger, despite — i.e., exactly because of — the fact that in his view man is not one intelligent animal among others and thinking is not coming to know, i.e., it is not a process executed by the intellect. Rather, it is man’s mode of being. Anthropocentrism thus gains a new meaning: thinking is the “stage” (Heidegger is speaking of the clearing in the midst of being) where things open to the Dasein — to use the expression of his letter on humanism, they ,,acquire a voice”. Heidegger’s efforts are directed against the subjectivisation of thought: language is not the property of man; it is the event of being. Man’s destiny is to help the meaning of being to speak. The world uncovers itself by language, while the other existing things, being worldless or poor in world, merely live in it in the physical environment which form their existence’s conditions of necessity." The characteristic of this strange mode of being, is that, continuously surpassing itself, it achieves realisation precisely in this selftranscendence: it ,is” not; it ,happens”. ,Does not every essential determination of man overreach him?”, he asks in his study on Schelling. “Does man not exist in such a way that the more primordially he is himself, he is precisely not only and not primarily himself? ...man is experienced in what drives him beyond himself...” Insofar as, following Heidegger, one views being’s acquisition of speech as man’s ontological mission, the contradiction between human freedom and the natural limitations highlighted by the eco-ethicists disappears. “Freedom reveals itself as the “letting-be” of what is”, Thiele 59 Martin Heidegger: Letter on humanism. In: Martin Heidegger: ,... Poetically, Man Dwells...”. T-Twins-Pompeji, Budapest-Szeged, 1994. p.117. 60 On whether or not and even how their “worldlessness” should be understood according to Heidegger, see Vajda Mihály: Heidegger és az állat kísértete (Heidegger and the Shadow of the Animal). In: Vajda Mihály: Nem az örökkévalóságnak (No to Eternity). Osiris Gond, Budapest, 1996. §1 Martin Heidegger: Schelling’s Treatise on the Essence of Human Freedom. p.163-164. The Ohio University Press, 1985.
