On the notion of organism in Martin Heidegger’s ontological emergentism

Abstract

Contrary to panpsychist ontologies present in the work of authors such as Alfred North Whitehead and Gottfried Leibniz, Martin Heidegger proposes an emergentist perspective illustrated by his well known distinction in which the stone is worldless, the animal is poor in world and men is world-forming. By admitting the qualitative ontological surpassing between matter and life or non-intentionality and intentionality, Heidegger advocates for a phenomenological justified emergentism. That being said, the paper demonstrates how Heidegger’s ontology presupposes a qualitative distinction between physical, biological and human spheres by describing the concept of organism proposed by the german philosopher.