Spirito oggettivo, coscienza e vita. Simmel, Rosenzweig,Heidegger

The essay focuses on the relationship between life and concept as formulated by three great authors of the early 20th century. Simmel explicitly shows the irreducibility of life to forms in a way that is not only sociological, but projects it onto a much broader cultural horizon. In Heidegger, this mismatch is thematised through the ontological difference between Sein and Dasein. In Rosenzweig too, in the Star of Redemption, we find - mutatis mutandis - a similar incommensurability between creature and creator. These are three versions of the same problematic core, although addressed in three completely different ways. For example, the very term 'revelation' is rendered by Heidegger as 'Enthuellung', while in Rosenzweig it becomes 'Offenbarung', due to the different point of view taken in analysing the problem.