The earth appears in Heidegger’s thinking of the fourfold, which names the coming together of earth, sky, mortals, and divinities into the forming of the relational thing. The fourfold was discussed before in “Heidegger: The Fourfold”. This article revisits and re-reads differently what Heidegger means by the earth.
The Earth
The earth is a material and materiality. The earth is the material from out of which things are formed and hence become themselves in their appearing to us. The earth is the way through which things exist and appear to us. Heidegger calls this appearing of the things to us through the earth “bearing”.
“Bearing” is not either a “ground” or “grounding”. In “grounding”, what is grounded refers to, and arises only because of, that in which it is grounded, that is, its essence as its base rendering possible this “grounding” as establishing. What is grounded emerges from out of its ground and hence refers back to it. What is grounded follows, and is turned toward, its ground since it is that in which it is rooted.
“Bearing” means belonging-to-each-other. What is borne belongs to its bearer. In “bearing”, what is borne forms its bearer by being borne. There is a togetherness in this relation, occurring as reciprocality. The bearer bears the borne and only then it becomes itself formed as a bearer.
This means that there are no grounds and there is no final ground. The only thing that happens in this world is that we are held there floating, drifting, and wandering. This holding is reciprocal. The world bears us and we bear the world; we bear each other and the others bear us.
This reciprocality, which lacks grounds and grounding, means that the earth is neither substantial nor fixed. The earth bears and, in its bearing, makes possible a coming to fruition, a blossoming into appearance. The earth bears the appearing, the coming into appearance, of things. Because of this bearing of appearances, the earth is the material of things, yet a materiality allowing, and relating to, only a coming into appearances.
This bearing of appearances means that the earth is the shining through which things appear and announce themselves to us. This shining means that things do not announce themselves to us materially, but rather phenomenally. It is thus only a gleaming that forms the things that constitute our world, the world radiating to us and hence welcoming us and announcing its blossoming.
For more articles on Heidegger’s philosophy, visit this webpage.