A Comparative Study of Heidegger's Analysis of the Greek Temple and Henry Corbin's Analysis of Kaaba

Abstract

 Traditionally, art has been one of the "fundamental issues of phenomenology"; therefore, it can be used as a criterion for the comparison of two kinds of phenomenology. Our task is to juxtapose these two phenomenological approaches with aesthetic criteria. By studying Martin Heidegger's perspective of a work of art (the Greek temple) and comparing it with Henry Corbin / Qazi Sa’id Qumi's insights about an Islamic building (Kaaba), we point out some of the similarities and differences between these two kinds of phenomenology. Then we will conclude that Corbin's phenomenology has been so distant from the phenomenological tradition, that we can call it phenomenology only in a different meaning: and that Corbin's approach is more about Islamic wisdom than traditional phenomenology.