Abstract in English:
The present contribution analyses two writings of Heidegger which have almost never been examined until now: The Uniqueness of the Poet (1943) and Evening Conversation: In a Prisoner of War Camp in Russia between a Younger and an Older Man (1945). These writings are very important for the comparative study of Heidegger's philosophy and East Asian thinking, not least because they are based on the Taoist idea of the necessity of the unnecessary (無用之用, wuyongzhiyong). Heidegger's reception of this idea is, as shown in this contribution, not simply a bare adoption, but rather a creative appropriation of East Asian thought for his own thinking of Being. First, this contribution shows Heidegger's confrontation with the idea of wuyongzhiyong. It then attempts to reflect on the extent to which the artwork, as that which seems to be useless, is necessary in a results-oriented society by looking at Heidegger's philosophy of art.
Keywords:
the necessity of the unnecessary; Heidegger; Lao-Tzu; Chuang-Tzu; a result-oriented society; art