EPISODE · Jul 21, 2025 · 16 MIN
Conversations in Philosophy: 'The Thing' by Martin Heidegger
from Close Readings · host London Review of Books
What does it mean for a jug to be a jug? Or for any thing to be called a ‘thing’? In his 1950 lecture ‘Das Ding’, Heidegger attempts to cajole his audience away from their everyday way of seeing the world as consisting of objects that can be represented objectively, and into the kind of thinking that ‘responds and recalls’. For Heidegger, the world we experience is one of dynamic movement between revelation and concealment, where the essential nature of a thing lies in its ‘thinging’, and the ‘jug’s jug character consists in the poured gift of the jug’s pouring out’. In this episode Jonathan and James work through Heidegger’s ideas about both ‘things’ and time, and consider the purpose of his poetic style. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrcip In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingscip Further reading in the LRB: Richard Rorty: Heidegger's Worlds https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v12/n03/richard-rorty/diary J.P. Stern: Heil Heidegger https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v11/n08/j.p.-stern/heil-heidegger James Miller: Arendt and Heidegger https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v17/n20/james-miller/thinking-without-a-banister LRB AUDIOBOOKS Discover audiobooks from the LRB, including Jonathan Rée's Becoming a Philosopher: Spinoza to Sartre: https://lrb.me/audiobookscip Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What this episode covers
What does it mean for a jug to be a jug? Or for any thing to be called a ‘thing’? In his 1950 lecture ‘Das Ding’, Heidegger attempts to cajole his audience away from their everyday way of seeing the world as consisting of objects that can be represented objectively, and into the kind of thinking that ‘responds and recalls’. For Heidegger, the world we experience is one of dynamic movement between revelation and concealment, where the essential nature of a thing lies in its ‘thinging’, and the ‘jug’s jug character consists in the poured gift of the jug’s pouring out’. In this episode Jonathan and James work through Heidegger’s ideas about both ‘things’ and time, and consider the purpose of his poetic style. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe: Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrcip In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingscip Further reading in the LRB: Richard Rorty: Heidegger's Worlds https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v12/n03/richard-rorty/diary J.P. Stern: Heil Heidegger https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v11/n08/j.p.-stern/heil-heidegger James Miller: Arendt and Heidegger https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v17/n20/james-miller/thinking-without-a-banister LRB AUDIOBOOKS Discover audiobooks from the LRB, including Jonathan Rée's Becoming a Philosopher: Spinoza to Sartre: https://lrb.me/audiobookscip Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Conversations in Philosophy: 'The Thing' by Martin Heidegger
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