Conceptualization Contra Contextualization: Truth in Heidegger\u27s The Origin of the Work of Art

In his lecture The Origin of the Work of Art , Heidegger presents us with what seems to be a paradox: What art is should be inferable from the work. What the work of art is we can come to know only from the essence of art. Anyone can easily see that we are moving in a circle, Ordinary understanding demands that this circle be avoided because it violates logic. In this essay, I will discuss how the ontological study of the work of art results in the conceptualization of the work of art. Ultimately, through conceptualization alone, one loses sight of what the essence of art is. Only when the conceptualization of the work of art is contextualized will one be able to see the truth of the work of art