metontology

is the study of specific regions of being such as ethics and sexual difference.

metontology. The name for a branch of philosophy that Heidegger pro- posed but never developed. It appears in his lecture course The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic. Whereas ontology talks about being as a whole, metontology was supposed to discuss specific regions of being, such as ethics and sexual difference.

is the reversal of ontology into the concrete realm, a turn which will also lead to a turn in ontology.

Heidegger says that metontology will not only cause a reversal of ontology into the concrete realm, but will also lead to a turn in ontology. He does not specify what this means, but the German word he uses for “turn” is Kehre. This is interesting, since Kehre is the same word Heidegger sometimes uses to describe the later turn in his own philosophical thinking (which is dated at different times by different scholars).

is a philosophy able to come to grips with specific forms of reality.

“metontology” mentioned earlier—a philosophy able to come to grips with specific forms of reality.

is not something higher or deeper than normal ontology, but is in some ways even “lower.”

We now come to Heidegger’s famous handful of pages on “metontology.” While this concept is not placed at the very end of the course, it is perhaps the most intriguing concept in the lectures, and is therefore a good note on which to end our summary of the 1928 course. The word metontology refers to the Greek word metabole, an important concept in Aristotle’s Physics that is still recognizable in the English word “metabolism.” Metabole means change or turnabout. For Heidegger, metontology is not something higher or deeper than normal ontology, but is in some ways even “lower.”

is the collapse of ontology back into the specific regions of life that it initially tried to surpass (theories of art, animal life, political reality, human psychology, military strategy, etc.)

Whereas ontology deals in broad and seemingly abstract terms with the entire world, metontology (Heidegger merely proposes it, and never develops it) is supposed to deal with more concrete topics. Although Heidegger only gives two examples of such topics, they are literally infinite in number. Only metontology would allow us to pass from Heidegger’s high-flying ontological concepts back down to possible philosophical theories of art, animal life, political reality, human psychology, military strategy, or any specific topic one might imagine. As it turns out, the two he actually mentions are ethics and sexual difference. Only metontology could give us a rigorous philosophical treatment of ethics, and only metontology could shed philosophical light on the difference between the sexes, which is (by necessity) completely missing from Heidegger’s own analyses of Dasein.

metontology, n.Definitions

metontology