Heidegger and phenomenology: on the circulation of the ontological difference

Abstract

This paper engages with the notion of phenomenology in the vicinities of what is commonly known as die Kehre, i.e., 'the turn' that takes place in Heidegger's thought in the 1930s. The shifts in Heidegger's understanding of phenomenology and of the ontological difference are recalled and discussed. Thanks to Catherine Malabou's work, it is possible to reconcile the otherwise discontinuous phases of Heidegger's thought and to elaborate a concept of phenomenology unconstrained by the metaphysical dualisms of matter and form, content and method. The notion of plasticity is seen to better describe the metabolic deformability of philosophical thought itself.