Bakhtin and Heidegger: Paths to the Understanding and Interpretation of the Event of Being in Language

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to place into dialogue the paths indicated by Bakhtin and Heidegger that lead to the understanding and interpretation of the event of being in language. Thus, we analyzed the philosophers’ common proposal for establishing a first philosophy (prima philosophia), which questions the origin of meaning. This is equivalent to inquiring about the access to reality that every language and thus every discourse/text/utterance provide. We also examined the ontological character of Dasein (being-there) and the role of thinking for the interpretation of the ethical act materialized in the event of being. In order to lay the theoretical foundation of the paths of an architectonics and hermeneutics of ontological facticity, Bakhtin and Heidegger, respectively, revisited several traditions. What would the role left to philosophy be in understanding and interpreting the event of being? The answer to this question seems to point to an ontological-hermeneutic understanding/interpretation whose paths we attempted to unveil.