Letter on Humanism

1. Introduction

Martin Heidegger’s “Letter on Humanism” (Brief über den Humanismus, 1947) is a programmatic essay in the form of a philosophical letter to the French thinker Jean Beaufret. It is widely viewed as a key statement of Heidegger’s “turn” (Kehre) from the existential analysis of Being and Time to a more explicit focus on Being, language, and the historical fate of Western metaphysics.

The text intervenes in post‑war debates about humanism, especially in France, where existentialism, Marxism, and Christian personalism were competing to define the human being and its dignity after the catastrophes of the Second World War. Rather than proposing a new variety of humanism, Heidegger questions whether any doctrine that begins from a definition of “man” can be adequate.

A frequently cited passage encapsulates his alternative orientation:

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“Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells.”

— Heidegger, “Letter on Humanism” (GA 9)

The essay has been read both as a clarification of Heidegger’s distance from Sartrean existentialism and as a manifesto for post‑metaphysical thinking. Its influence extends into later debates on antihumanism, post‑humanism, and the “death of man” in twentieth‑century thought.

2. Historical Context and Occasion of the Letter

Postwar European Setting

The Letter on Humanism emerged from the immediate post‑Second World War context, marked by:

Many commentators suggest that these developments created a climate in which the term humanism had become a central rallying point for ethics and politics.

Beaufret’s Question and Sartre’s Influence

The immediate occasion was a letter from French philosopher Jean Beaufret, who reportedly asked Heidegger how meaning might be restored to the word “humanism” and how Heidegger’s thought related to Sartrean existentialism. Heidegger’s reply, dated November 1946, addresses this question by:

• indirectly responding to Sartre’s claim that existentialism is a humanism,
• questioning whether humanism as such—ancient, Christian, Marxist, or existentialist—can think the truth of Being.

The text was first published in 1947 in the German journal Frage und Antwort, within a broader postwar attempt to reassess philosophy’s role after the collapse of National Socialism and the crisis of European culture.

3. Author and Composition

Heidegger at the Time of Writing

By 1946–47, Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) was a prominent but controversial figure. Formerly rector at Freiburg University and briefly associated with National Socialism in the early 1930s, he was subject to denazification proceedings and barred from teaching for several years. Scholars often note that Letter on Humanism belongs to this period of partial “inner exile,” when he was reworking his earlier philosophy and reflecting on the destiny of the West.

Genesis and Form

The work took shape as a written response to Jean Beaufret. Its compositional features include:

Heidegger later made minor revisions when incorporating it into GA 9: Wegmarken (Pathmarks), a collection of key essays. Editorial notes indicate that the core argument remained stable, while formulation and references were slightly refined.

Commentators disagree on how far the text represents a decisive break from Being and Time; some view it as a continuation under different emphases, others as a major reorientation around language and the history of Being.

4. Structure and Central Arguments

Overall Structure

Although not divided into numbered sections in the original, commentators generally discern a multi‑part progression:

Central Arguments

Several interrelated theses structure the letter:

1. All humanisms remain metaphysical. Proponents of this reading emphasize Heidegger’s claim that humanisms define “man” as a kind of being (e.g., rational animal, subject, person) without first asking the question of Being itself.

2. Essence of the human as ek‑sistence. Heidegger reinterprets human being (Da‑sein) as ek‑sistence, a standing‑out into the clearing (Lichtung) where Being is disclosed, rather than as a self‑grounding subject.

3. Language as the house of Being. Thought must listen to the “saying” of language instead of using language merely as an instrument of representation or communication.

4. Critique of value‑discourse. To treat Being or truth as “values” is, he contends, to subordinate them to human willing, reinforcing a will‑to‑power orientation and a form of nihilism.

5. Thinking beyond philosophy. Heidegger distinguishes meditative “thinking” from system‑building philosophy and technical science, suggesting that a transformation in thinking underlies any future renewal of human dwelling and action.

5. Key Concepts: Being, Ek-sistence, and Language

Being and the Question of Being

Heidegger insists that Being (Sein) is not a highest being or value but the enabling condition under which beings appear at all. In Letter on Humanism, he reiterates the priority of the question of Being over any doctrine about the human:

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“The human being is not the lord of beings. The human being is the shepherd of Being.”

— Heidegger, “Letter on Humanism” (GA 9)

Interpreters often stress that this displaces humanity from a central, foundational role.

Ek‑sistence and Da‑sein

Heidegger reformulates the essence of the human as Da‑sein, whose nature is ek‑sistence (Ek‑sistenz):

• Ek‑sistence: literally “standing‑out,” indicating that the human is constituted by openness to Being, not by an inner substance or rational faculty.
• The “essence” of the human is thus not an attribute but a relation—a being‑claimed by the truth of Being within the clearing (Lichtung).

Some commentators see this as deepening themes from Being and Time; others underscore its shift away from subjectivity toward an event of disclosure.

Language as the House of Being

The letter famously states:

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“Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells.”

— Heidegger, “Letter on Humanism” (GA 9)

Here language is:

• not a tool at human disposal,
• the site where Being “gives” itself and where world is articulated.

Heidegger contrasts instrumental views of language with a more originary saying (Sage), often exemplified in poetry (notably Hölderlin). Later thinkers have drawn on this to develop philosophies of language, discourse, and textuality that decenter the human speaker in favor of structures or events of language itself.

6. Legacy and Historical Significance

Influence on Later Philosophy

Letter on Humanism has played a significant role in several intellectual developments:

Ethical and Political Debates

The text’s rejection of traditional humanism has generated ongoing controversy. Critics argue that it risks undermining notions such as human rights and dignity, while supporters of Heidegger’s approach maintain that it seeks a more originary grounding for ethics by rethinking the human‑Being relation.

Its relative silence on Heidegger’s own involvement with National Socialism has been read by some as an attempt to move discussion to an abstract plane; others interpret it as an oblique, philosophical response to the technological and political crises of the twentieth century.

Standing in Heidegger Scholarship

Within Heidegger studies, the letter is widely regarded as:

• a canonical formulation of the “turn” (Kehre) toward language and the history of Being,
• a key text for interpreting the continuity and discontinuity between early and later Heidegger,
• a standard reference in discussions of humanism, subjectivity, and the future of philosophical thinking.

Its impact continues in contemporary debates on the status of the human in an age marked by technology, ecological crisis, and emerging forms of post‑human agency.