The Contribution of Jakob von Uexküll to The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics. World, Finitude, Solitude (1929–1930) of Martin Heidegger

Abstract

In this paper I argue that the scientific approaches of Jakob von Uexküll crucially support Martin Heidegger’s metaphysical reflections about the world, beyond what Heidegger himself explicitly recognized. In particular, Jakob von Uexküll’s studies emphasized, better than mechanicism and vitalism, the relationship between the environment and the inner world of the animal, which is crucial for Heidegger to claim in his winter 1929–1930 lessons that the essence of the animal is “disturbance”(Benomenheit)