Umwelt

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Roy Elveton (Carleton College)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Domains

Concept/ Method (philosophical)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1900

Places

Germany (Location)

The concept of the Umwelt plays a central role in Martin Heidegger’s (1889-1976) celebrated account of human existence in his major work, Being and Time (1927). The Umwelt, variously translated as “environment” or “surrounding world”, represents the everyday world of human activity: its cares, concerns and ends. It is best understood not as the world that is merely in our immediate vicinity, perceivable by a detached observer, but as the ordered arrangement of equipment and tools that is directly accessible to human practical activities and aims. What “surrounds” us in this sense is what is practically necessary, available and desirable with respect …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

502 words

Citation: Elveton, Roy. "Umwelt". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 April 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1542, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Umwelt

Domains

Dates

Places

Save this article

Leave Feedback