Browsing by Author "Lahtinen, Veikka"

The master´s thesis concerns the relationship between Martin Heidegger´s early philosophy and Pierre Bourdieu´s social ontology. It examines Bourdieu´s central concepts particularly in relation to Heidegger´s major work Being and Time. In the thesis it is shown, what kinds of similarities and differences can be found between the two thinkers. The thesis is also a summary of Bourdieu´s ontology. The thesis is the first extensive treatise on the influence of Heidegger on Bourdieu´s thought. Bourdieu has written about Heidegger at different stages of his career but the relationship between the two has not been discussed much in scholarly literature. With the help of Heidegger´s thought, the thesis clarifies the philosophical dimension in Bourdieu´s thought, especially his social ontology. The relationship between Bourdieu and Heidegger is approached through three questions in the thesis. These are: 1. What are the philosophical similarities between Bourdieu and early Heidegger? 2. What are the differences between them? 3. How is Bourdieu´s social ontology complementary in relation to Heidegger? The questions are examined by close-reading Bourdieu´s theoretical writings and Heidegger´s early philosophical works. The thesis shows that habitus and the social field, the conceptual pair central to Bourdieu´s so called 'theory of practice', is a modification of the conceptual pair Dasein and world that Heidegger uses in Being and Time. This similarity is connected to a broader connection between Bourdieu and Heidegger: both thinkers do away with the subject – object –distinction and show how out experience of reality is constituted in practical, always already interpreted acting in the world. Bourdieu´s thought is also shown to differ from Heidegger´s : Bourdieu emphasizes the significance of empirical findings for understanding social reality. He explicitly criticizes Heidegger for ahistoricality, namely for not examining the societal and historical conditions of the possibility of being human. Bourdieu sees the importance of Heidegger´s phenomenological hermeneutics but demands that it engage in dialogue with empirical research. The thesis brings to light how Bourdieu on the basis of Heideggerian fundamental ontology has developed a social scientific research program and thus taken Heidegger´s early thought on a new path. Bourdieu reforms the Heideggerian conception of the social and builds critical social scientific thought on the foundation of Heideggerian ontology. Bourdieu also attempts to bring out social and historical conditions of the possibility of Heidegger´s thought. As the conclusion of the thesis it is stated that the influence of Heidegger´s early thought on Bourdieu is apparent and complex, even though clear differences between the two thinkers can also be shown.