Book Description
In this volume Martin Heidegger confronts the philosophical problems of language and begins to unfold the meaning begind his famous and little understood phrase "Language is the House of Being."

The "Dialogue on Language," between Heidegger and a Japanese friend, together with the four lectures that follow, present Heidegger's central ideas on the origin, nature, and significance of language. These essays reveal how one of the most profound philosophers of our century relates language to his earlier and continuing preoccupation with the nature of Being and himan being.

One the Way to Language enable readers to understand how central language became to Heidegger's analysis of the nature of Being. On the Way to Language demonstrates that an interest in the meaning of language is one of the strongest bonds between analytic philosophy and Heidegger. It is an ideal source for studying his sustained interest in the problems and possibilities of human language and brilliantly underscores the originality and range of his thinking. ... Read more

Book Description
Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning), written in 1936-38 and first published in 1989, is Heidegger's most ground-breaking work after the publication of Time and Being in 1927.If Time and Being is perceived as undermining modern metaphysics, Contributions undertakes to reshape the very project of thinking.In this unusual work, thinking becomes a dimension of time and space, and a historical unfolding of being occurs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Heidegger's "Second Masterpiece"
Heidegger's "Contributions to Philosophy: From Enowning" is generally regarded as a second masterpiece, following his unfinished Being and Time, in which he reworked some of the major ideas that were explored in the earlier text. If you are interested in a good scholarly understanding Heidegger via a series of landmark texts that will lead you to the core of Heidegger's thought then this is definitely a must-read.

The Contributions, written after the famous Heideggerian "Turn" and after his fateful involvement with the "inner truth and greatness of the movement" is of a level of sophistication that is unmatched. Arranged in terms of a series of distinct but interrelated parts, the text overcomes the problems encountered in Being and Time and takes off thinking to new heights.

It is unbelievable Indiana Press let this translation become a book
It is unbelievable Indiana Press let this translation become a book.

Beitrage Zur Philosophie
I recommend that first you pour yourself a glass of wine, drink it and relax and dip into...Now what was he saying about Enowing and the Ones to Come and the Last God and all...? That's right, chill out with the Magician from Messkirch. let Der Man speak his words. this is Beitrage Zur Philosophie, baby. The Big Think. Gotta ride this wave. It will take you someplace to think about.

At Least he didn't call this book:Sick Puppy.
I am not overly familiar with this book.It is the most recent translation of a major work by Heidegger that I have seen this year, and I thought I ought to look into it to see if the thinking around Heidegger is getting any better for me personally.The more I know about philosophy, the less I have to read to start getting an opinion of my own, and a page of this stuff was usually enough to put me in a different frame of mind.Plowing on after I lost my idea of whatever thread I was following had a tendency to be soporific, so I recommend this book to people who have a lot of time to sleep.

There is a little section 72, "Nihilism" on pages 96-8 which makes me think philosophy must mean a lot less now than when Nietzsche inspired Heidegger to write, "Nihilism in Nietzsche's sense means that all goals are gone" (p. 96).For the 20th century to produce a great philosopher like Heidegger and put him in the midst of some of the greatest political foolishness of the 20th century, and have most professional philosophers think that he was showing too much activism when he joined the Nazi party, but was being extremely professional when he managed to maintain his standing in the party while Hitler was in power by not saying anything bad about Hitler, makes me think the comedians of the age might have been in a better position to do some political thinking.In the movie, "The Dance of Genghis Cohn," a little dummy that looks like Hitler was the kind of funny bit which got the comedian beat up by some younger members of the Nazi party right after the show.That kind of German society seems to be what Heidegger has most on his mind in his description of nihilism."Proof for this is the gigantically organized event for shouting down this anxiety. . . . The most disastrous nihilism consists in passing oneself off as protector of Christianity . . . on the basis of social accomplishments" (p. 97).Younger people than Heidegger have found a lot of individual ways for having goals, and the main reason that they haven't been able to put it together is that a collection like the United Stoners of America is not naturally cohesive.Heidegger was a long way from wanting that to be so out in the open.He must attempt to be so philosophical that his last sentence for the section on nihilism is "Instead this awareness must recognize the abandonment of being as essential sway.(p. 98).

Agree with the previous reader
I am fluent in German and own a copy of the Beitraege and am reading the English together with the German.Even the translation of "Ereignis" as "Enonwing" is problematic, since"eignen" in the German means to make fit or suited or appropriateto.Krell's translation of Ereignis as appropriation or event ofappropriation is much better, since it captures both owning and fitting. Besides, the accompanying "er" words (such as erdacht) often gettranslated in a bizarre way (erdacht becomes the horrible"enthought"), so that the parallelism becomes ludicrous tomaintain.I wish the editor John Sallis had taken more of a hand inediting this translation, since it's really important.In the(self-justifying, historically barren)introduction, the translators go onand on about Heidegger's "syntax" and "ambiguity" in away which is embarassing, since Heidegger would question a style oftranslation which seeks to isolate syntax and minimize ambiguity.So theyalso show themselves to be well outside the spirit of Heidegger's thought. In the end, if you don't read German, I would still highly recommend thistranslation since you can get discern the main thrusts of Heidegger'sinvolvement with the question within it and it is THE essential text whichjoins his later work.But for the subtlety and grace of Heidegger'sthought enacted in English, we are still waiting for a suitably giftedtranslator, except perhaps for Sallis' Essence of Truth translation.Onceagain, it is a pity he did not find the time to involve himself more withthis translation. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent introduction
This shorter book is very understandable.My suggestion is to read the introduction, "Heidegger in 1991," last; the author's "introductory" essay really acts as a good summation for the entire project.

Outdated
This is a nicely written book, very easy to read, but a bit philosophically facile.More problematically, it was written before the biographical revelations came out in the 1990s and as a result it is dated and factually inaccurate.The Safranski biography is MUCH better.

I'm in complete agreement with the review by "Tepi."
Steiner wrote with in an exceptioanlly clear style. This is the single best, most approachable and even-handed introduction to the intriguing thought of Heidegger. Part biographical, part historical, part critical. Lucidity is the key term here. Any serious aspiring student of philosophy would be hard-pressed to find better. Steiner doesn't bash H. (as i tend to do), not does he curl up to him in a servile and byzantine gesture of soulless academic praise 9and there is tons of that out there). I can't say enough.

I'd also recommend his excellent rumination on the history of Tragedy: "The Death of Tragedy."

The luminous thoughts of Martin Heidegger.
MARTIN HEIDEGGER.By George Steiner.173 pp.University of Chicago Press edition, 1987 (1978).ISBN 0-226-77232-2 (pbk.)

The presence of Heidegger is so insistent that sooner or later wewant to find out more about this controversial figure.But where to start?His most famous work, 'Being and Time,' is notoriously unapproachable by the unprepared, but where can we find a really good Introduction to the man and his main ideas?After tackling several well-known Introductory studies, and quickly abandoning them as just too dry and boring, I finally discovered George Steiner'sshort study.

What a joy it was to read Steiner!I'm one of those compulsive scribblers who always read pencil in hand, ready to annotatesignificant and memorable passages to make sure I'll be able to findthem when I want to return and re-read them, and after a single reading pretty well every page was marked.

Steiner has a beautifully lucid style, and he writes with real passion. After a 28-page Introduction, 'Heidegger: In 1991,' and an 'In Place of a Foreword,' three Chapters follow : 1. 'Some Basic Terms;' 2. 'Being and Time;' 3. 'The Presence of Heidegger.'The book is rounded out with a Biographical Note, a useful Short Bibliography, and an Index.

Steiner throughout shows great skill in actually making us feel the movements of Heidegger's thought as it flows along totally unexpected and amazing paths, and one is left wondering what heights Westernthought might have risen to if it had stayed true to its original impulse.It would seem that, for Heidegger, thought was not mere ratiocination, but something more akin to devotion, a devotion we come to share.

Here are a few lines from the book : "We are trying "to listen to the voice of Being"" (p.32);"Art is not, as in Plato and Cartesian realism, an imitation of the real.It is the more real" (p.136);"Creation _should be_ custody; a human construction _should be_ the elicitation and housing of the great springs of being" (p.136); "Man has labored and thought not with but against the grain of things.Hehas not given lodging to the forces and creatures of the natural world but made them homeless" (p.136); "... the Heideggerian asker lays himself open to that which is being questioned and becomes ... the permeable space of its disclosure" (p.55); "The earth, says Heidegger, must once again be made a _Spielraum_, literally, a space in which to play" (p.149).These are truly luminous thoughts, and the book is full of them.

I'm not sure what specialists may think of this book, but as a non-specialist I found it a very exciting book to read, and one that left me eager to know more.Steiner's study strikes meas what must be one of the best possible introductions to Heideggerfor the ordinary reader.

Heidegger by Steiner
Prof. Steiner's beautiful and precise prose clarifies the fundamental aspects of Heidegger's philosophy. Compared with similar introductions to the philosopher, Steiner's is particularly insightful and a pleasure to read by itself: the work is full of "sentences that arrest the spirit". ... Read more

Book Description
Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy presents a lecture course given by Martin Heidegger in 1926 at the University of Marburg. First published in German as volume 22 of the collected works, the book provides Heidegger's most systematic history of Ancient philosophy beginning with Thales and ending with Aristotle. In this lecture, which coincides with the completion of his most important work, Being and Time, Heidegger is working out a way to sharply differentiate between beings and Being. Richard Rojcewicz's clear and accurate translation offers English-speaking readers valuable insight into Heidegger's views on Ancient thought and concepts such as principle, cause, nature, unity, multiplicity, Logos, truth, science, soul, category, and motion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Mainly on philosophical topics, certainly dense
FOUR SEMINARS seems rather fragmentary to me.The text was created by a few people who got together on a number of occasions.Things that are numbered have a lot of firsts on a single page, particularly on page 47, where the topology of being is imagined with three aspects:

Three terms which succeed one another and at the same time indicate three steps along the way of thinking:MEANING -- TRUTH -- PLACE . . .
First, truth. . . .
First, what does "meaning" signify?Meaning in BEING AND TIME is defined in terms of a project region, and projection is the accomplishment of Dasein, which means the ek-static instancy in the openness of being.By ek-sisting, Dasein includes meaning.The thinking that proceeds from BEING AND TIME, in that it gives up the word "meaning of being" in favor of "truth of being," henceforth emphasizes the openness of being itself, rather than the openness of Dasein in regard to this openness of being.
This signifies "the turn," in which thinking always more decisively turns to being as being.

The statements above are taken from 23 lines of text.I have omitted a Greek word for place and a German word for instancy.The ek- form of words pops up so frequently that I noticed a Greek instance on page 54:

What for Aristotle was a development [Auseinanderfolge] (the result of an emerging out of; ek-eis), becomes a succession [Aufeinanderfolge] (through the determination of the result as sequential) -- this due to the fact that the first idea is only an "occult quality," brought into disrepute by the Cartesians, though nevertheless rehabilitated in a certain sense by Leibniz.

This book does not have an index or translation of most Greek terms, but glossaries (pp. 113-118) of German-English and English-German correspondence allow those who are sure of a meaning in one language to check for which word this corresponds to in the other translation.The seminars in 1966, 1968, 1969, and 1973 took place in French, and the German translator, Curd Ochwadt, provides an Afterword with a poem by Martin Heidegger in German which is translated in a note on page 112.There is also an Afterword which appeared in COLLECTED EDITION, VOLUME 15 on Heidegger quoting Hegel's "A torn sock is better than a mended one" (p. 98).If this book did have an index, I'm sure it should contain:

Parmenides, Heraclitus, Aristotle, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Marx, Pindar, and Descartes for pages 1-9.

Hegel, Holderlin, Reinhold, Fichte, Schelling, Aristotle, Descartes, Luther, Galileo, William of Ockham, Husserl, Jean Beaufret, Kant, Heraclitus, Newton, Plato, Marx, Kant, Freud and Meister Eckhart for pages 10-34.

I spent a lot of time contemplating page 32, which contains such gems as:

This lived-body is something like the reach of the human body (last night, the moon was closer than the Louvre).
What "seeing" here means is in question, if one admits, despite a well-established French tradition, that cows never see trains pass by.
When Marx says, "Man produces himself, etc. . . . ," it means:"Man is a factory.Man produces himself as he produces his shoes."But what does "Production" mean for Hegel?By no means that man produces the Absolute.Production is the figure of reflection's accomplishment.

Truly complicated matters on September 6, 1969, include a list of seven questions by Roger Munier concerning technology that had been raised on September 11, 1966, a mere 35 years before a famous catastrophe in New York and at the Pentagon.Fifth question:"Will the rapid spreading of technological things not finally bring about an essential poverty, from which a turning around of the human to the truth of its essence becomes possible, even if by a detour of errancy?"(p. 45).Who knew? ... Read more

Book Description
A landmark discussion between two great thinkers, vital to an understanding of twentieth-century philosophy and intellectual history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

brilliant pedagogy!
Unlike traditional accounts of Nietzsche, of which there are many, and which dryly appropriate certain ideas to N. that are then delineated in linear, logical terms, Heidegger unfolds Nietzsche's thinking within its own domain. Heidegger thinks through and beyond Nietzsche in this work; as interpreters, we are called upon to enter the world as N. saw it, to think N.'s most abysmal thought deeply for ourselves.

Heidegger, in his unfolding of N.'s work, enters the questioning in his Heideggerian way (to me, H. truly inaugurated a new of "thinking")--which means: do not expect definitions of explicit explanations of terms and concepts. (do not expect concepts!). Rather, his lectures take us through N.'s ideas of "will to power" as "art" (Vol. 1), and "the eternal recurrence of the same" (Vol. 2) as a voyage through original (in the sense of 'origin', a place of creation) thinking--a voyage that sweeps us into the domain of Being itself, and of its configurations, domains, and manifestations.

(to those who say this is not N., this is Heidegger, in terms of ideas of the work: the fact that H. comes through so deeply in the work only speaks to his brilliant pedagogy. A teacher is precisely one who shows us the path by embodying the matter at hand in its full force. It does not mean he misunderstands N. Rather, it means he appropriates N. for himself, "incorporating" him into his own thinking. It is precisely this that students are taught to embody for themselves. Hence, this is not a flaw of Heidegger--that he "makes everything a prelude to himself", but rather, the very reason he helps us understand so deeply. Let us not forget this is a series of lecture courses...)

One day something will have to be written on Heidegger as pedagogue. Brilliant!!

The Foundations of Fascism
I have given the Nietzsche series by Heidegger 5-stars because of its absolutely central historical position in the philosophical development of fascism.

All attempts by professors with vested & sensationalist research interests to declare Nietzsche and/or Heidegger to have been "misappropriated" by fascism are futil. The works of Prof. Richard Wolin (available here at Amazon), have clearly demonstrated this once and for all time.

You say that the last statement is merely the expression of an opinion? Do you follow Nietzsche's dictum that "there are no facts, only opinions"? Here is a simple, Aristotalian (logos apophantikos) litmus test: Should we really take seriously anyone who asserts that Nietzsche's dictum is a valid description of the nhilistic condition of the world? Because that would violate the dictum itself, which asserts that it is impossible to have an Aristotalian corrspondance theory of truth. In that case, why even bother to read Nietzsche, or Heidegger, who want to be taken very seriously, after all, in their *assertions* that "assertion", as a mode of description, is itself impossible.

More grievous than the loss of Western metaphysics in this line of anti-reason, is their proposed replacement of it by a vague "Master of Truth" paradigm, for which they cabel together a falsepre-Socratic geneology. See the works of Beatrice Han (also at Amazon), who takes the great neo-Heideggerian Foucault to task for not being Nietzschean enough in this regard. For the "Master of Truth", the Uberman, is nothing more than a Napolean (for Nietzsche), or a Hitler (for Heidegger).

Yes, the roots of fascism are still strong in the Postmodern movement which thrives on the works of the "iron triangle" of Nietzsche-Hiedegger-Foucalt.

What? How can the *Left* be the new harbinger of fascism, you ask? Again, see the works of Prof. Richard Wolin here on Amazon. Or, see Pink Floyd's "The Wall", in which a *Left-wing* rock poet descends into nhilism and is transformed into a Nazi before your eyes. The main character is named "Pink" after all, as in "socialist", as in Committee for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

And for more serious proof of the precariousness of our age, look no further than the UN Conference Against Racism at Durbin, South Africa. Under the rubric "Against Racism", every Postmodern-inspired NGO with a political agenda (the politics of identity) rose to a frothing crescendo of anti-Semitism not heard since the collapse of the Weimer Republic. There was Mary Robinson, so shaken by her inability to staunch the hemmoraging of philosophical error before her eyes, that she stood at the final dinner and shouted, "Tonight I am a Jew". But that is syllogistically a false statement (demonstrating again the simply bedrock-valid nature of logos apophantikos). She is Irish. And she is the paragon of what Gertrude Stein would surely call "A Lost Generation".

Nietzsche Becomes a Heideggerian, too!
I hate to appear cynical, but in this book, isn't Heidegger doing what he has done with every other facet of Western philosophy - namely, making it a prelude to himself?

It is by no means certain that Nietzsche 'believed in' the heavy philosophizing Heidegger specialised in. Some of Nietzsche's writings even disavow 'philosophy' - period. Nietzsche's own writings make it clear that he changed his mind a lot, and therefore, anyone endeavouring to make a consistent reading - of an inconsistent philosophy, has either to ignore
large parts of someone else's thinking - or make stuff up - to fill in the gaps. Perhaps this explains why some readers find Heidegger's study of Nietzsche clarifying.Heidegger has filled in the blanks and patched planks over tricky precipices.

For a man who had trouble relating to reality - for most of
his active life, elated one week, deep in depression the next,
Heidegger erects a remarkably impressive image of solidity
and consistency over Nietzsche's thought. Of course, we all enjoy reading 'Zarathustra.' But it's art - not reality. Nietzsche visualised those lovely ideas - but couldn't live them out.It wasn't 'lebensphilosophie' or 'erlebniss' -
but fantasy substitute. Heidegger would have you believe otherwise. Read any of Nietzsche's biographers (except the slavish idolatrers) - and that becomes evident enough. Alas, Heidegger has said nothing about the psychology of the real Nietzsche. Nietzsche condemned 'pity' as the trait of weak men. But the very thing which triggered his final collapse, was the
sight of a horse being beaten mercilessly. Perhaps that was the real Nietzsche - not the one who ran from his sense of pity. This series of volumes is profoundly meaningful if you happen to share Nietzsche's and Heidegger's pessimistic verdict about 2,500 years of (mistaken) Western philosophy. If you don't,
it might be considered one big yawn. I recommend Kaufmann's
studies as a counter-balance.

Mesmerizing and Meditative; The Mind of Heidegger
.
If you like Nietzsche, don't ignore Heidegger's monumental achievement.

Walter Kaufmann's Nietzche, psychologist and philosopher and on Heidegger in Kaufmann's, Discovering The Mind, Vol II, criticizes Heidegger to a great degree. In much of Kaufmann's objections to Heidegger's analogy of Nietzsche include his attempt to explain man's "essential ontology" into what really amounts to anthropomorphism. Also the fact that Heidegger uses texts of Nietzsche from obscure manuscripts over his published works. This, along with Kaufmann's personal encounters with Heidegger, in which Heidegger claimed to have unpublished writings incapable of adequate translation and explanation in his possession, esoteric information, an obvious manifestation of a prideful and arrogant personality.

Now I will agree with the majority of Kaufmann's arguments against Heidegger, including the fact that the man was an active Nazi, a party member and an active advocate of a totalitarian atmosphere imposed at the University he taught at. And it must be noted; there is no anti-semtic writing here, there is only deep and profound analytic treatment of Nietzsche.

Despite all of Kaufmann's valid criticisms and objectifications, I find Heidegger's Nietzsche, both mesmerizing, thought provoking and soul stirring. One needs to recognize this book is Heidegger, not Nietzche and Heidegger is a deep analytical thinker, whereas, Nietzche was both philosophical and poetic and top it all off, psychological. It takes a man like Heidegger to give it the philosophical, analytical style. Perhaps it is bias and to a degree "scandalous," as Kaufmann so brazenly claims, but to ignore these volumes would be foolish. For me, Heidegger's work is monumental and inspirational. If one reads Heidegger with discernment and awareness, then the four volumes of Nietzche are most beneficial and most certainly worth the read, not to pass in one's study of Nietzsche.

In particular the study of the "Will to Power as Art," where the truth is an error since art is the becoming and truth is always the become that is becoming in self positing, in artistic creativity of thought, the affixation on an apparition. And Heidegger's analytical explanation of Nietzsche's "Eternal Return" are far worth this read.

Also in line with this, is the explanation of Kaufmann in Nietzsche's Will To Power; not being self-preservation of Spinoza, nor pleasure principle of Freud, but of power, the power of the self-positing and creative center, not the power that dictates over others, which has been administered by totalitarian and authoritarian governments.

In addition to Kaufmann and Heidegger, Also excellent books:
Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography by Rudiger Safranski
Nietzsche : The Man and his Philosophy - R. J. Hollingdale
Nietzsche: by Karl Jaspers

Long-winded
Heidegger is a man who knows how to fill up a full class period with lots of talk. It would be possible to condense this book, the transcripts of two lecture courses given in 1936 and 1938, into a book 1/4 the length of the current tome. First of all, the time spent on Nietzsche's Nachlass is not particularly fruitful. What Nietzsche has to say regarding the eternal recurrence and the will-to-power can be found, and in the mature form, in BGE and Zarathustra. The lectures are interesting in some respects, for instance the chapter on Nietzsche and positivism is interesting and worth consulting in connection with "Plato's Doctrine of Truth." The reading of Kant's Third Critique is unique as a demonstration of Heidegger's approval of Kant, specifically the treatment of the beautiful. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Gelassenheit
This is an indispensible work if you are interested in discovering what Heidegger was thinking towards the end of his career. "Discourse on Thinking" can be seen as a succinct statement of his thinking on thinking in relation to the onslaught of global technology and the concomitant nihilism that follows close behind.

In the face of the domination of global technology, what is to be done? In terms of "Letting-Be" (Gelassenheit) thinking must overcome its preoccupation with instrumental reasoning which is based on representation and rationality. It is in "meditative thinking" that we are able to arrive at a proper relationship with technology.

An important work related to this is Heidegger's "Question Concerning Technology" in which he sets up the structure of this domination - the world is presented as a "standing resource" and we become "standing resources" in an indirect way. The work forms an invaluable background for this text and it is also available in Amazon.com. Another important work is Schirmacher's "Technik und Gelassenheit" which offers an important critique of Heidegger's philosophy of technology. The work is unfortunately, yet to be translated into English and even its German edition seems to be out of print at the moment. We await the translation of this work with much anticipation!

It does not take long to read this
This small, old book, an English translation in 1966 of a book published in German in 1959, consisting of a Memorial Address given on October 30, 1955 at the celebration of the birthday of a composer who lived in the years 1780-1849 in Heidegger's home town.

"I thank my homeland for all that it has given me along the path of life.I have tried to explain the nature of this endowment in those few pages entitled "Der Feldweg" which first appeared in 1949 in a book honoring the hundredth anniversary of the death of Conradin Kreutzer."(p. 43).

The Memorial Address is rather short, but it is followed by "Conversation on a Country Path About Thinking" (pp. 58-90) and a Glossary (pp. 91-93) which "includes only those words especially important to the argument which are translated in more or less unusual ways," including "Feldweg," which means "country path."One of the translators, John M. Anderson, also provides an Introduction to explain the differences in outlook of calculative thinking and meditative thinking.The explanation includes a description of BEING AND TIME (pp. 15-18, 20-21), INTRODUCTION TO METAPHYSICS (pp. 18-19), and the special terms used in this book.

The Memorial Address is the simple part of this book, clearly aimed at "Honored Guests, Friends and Neighbors!"(p. 43).Instead of dwelling on music as the creation of those who seek to express their forms of meditation in notes that others can participate in, Heidegger names the forms through which spectators merely look and listen:"chained to radio and television.Week after week the movies carry them off . . .Picture magazines are available everywhere."(p. 48).Calculative thinking produces a habit seen by Heidegger as "the superficiality of man's way of life."(p. 49).Speaking just three weeks before a Soviet test of a thermonuclear device dropped from an airplane on November 22, 1955, Heidegger said, "Far more uncanny is our being unprepared for this transformation, our inability to confront meditatively what is really dawning in this new age."(p. 52).

The attitude which Heidegger recommended to people at large reminds me of my own involvement in what I consider secret circus stunts."But suddenly and unaware we find ourselves so firmly shackled to these technological devices that we fall into bondage to them."(pp. 53-54).By just observing, "we stand at once within the realm of that which hides itself from us, and hides itself just in approaching us.That which shows itself and at the same time withdraws is the essential trait of what we call mystery."(p. 56).Meditation is called for as a more human activity, and the composer is finally brought back to our attention."If we respond to the prompting, we think of Conradin Kreutzer by thinking of the origins of his work, the life-giving powers of his Heuberg homeland.And it is we who think if we know ourselves here and now as the men who must find and prepare the way into the atomic age, through it and out of it."(p. 56).

The Conversation on a Country Path About Thinking has three participants:Scientist, Teacher, and Scholar.The scientist is eager to learn whatever might be useful, or what "is said to shelter in itself the nature of thinking, whereas things themselves do not think."(p. 76).The Scholar is well aware of the views of Meister Eckhart and Kant, and can discuss non-willing in a manner that reminds me of aphoria and the forms of opposition related in the DICTIONARY OF SEMIOTICS to the semiotic squares used to illustrate its definitions of alethic modalities, being-able, believing-to-be, contradiction, deixis, having-to-do, illusion, life/death, modalities, secret, semiotic square, uncertainty, and veridiction.In a semiotic analysis of "Sleeping Beauty" page 161 of the DICTIONARY OF SEMIOTICS shows three semiotic squares used to illustrate the deep level by mapping the fundamental transformation between two poles of abstract meaning between which the text moves for each square.Heidegger might be picturing himself in his Conversation as the teacher who can say:

"Not only do I see this relation, I confess that ever since I have tried to reflect on what moves our conversation, it has claimed my attention, if not challenged me."(p. 59).

We are all allowed to feel a bit lost, as the scientist says:

"You say that the horizon is the openness which surrounds us.But what is this openness as such, if we disregard that it can also appear as the horizon of our representing?"(p. 64). ... Read more

Book Description
"To read Heidegger is to set out on an adventure. The essays in this volume--intriguing, challenging, and often baffling to the reader--call him always to abandon all superficial scanning and to enter wholeheartedly into the serious pursuit of thinking....

"Heidegger is not a 'primitive' or a 'romanitic.' He is not one who seeks escape from the burdens and responsibilities of contemporary life into serenity, either through the re-creating of some idyllic past or through the exalting of some simple experience. Finally, Heidegger is not a foe of technology and science. He neither disdains nor rejects them as though they were only destructive of human life.

"The roots of Heidegger's hinking lie deep in the Western philosophical tradition. Yet that thinking is unique in many of its aspects, in its language, and in its leterary expression. In the development of this thought Heidegger has been taught chiefly by the Greeks, by German idealism, by phenomenology, and by the scholastic theological tradition. In him these and other elements have been fused by his genius of sensitivity and intellect into a very individual philosophical expression." --William Lovitt, from the Introduction ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

understand
After reading Heidegger I feel as if I sort of understand nature and the nature channel.

Heidegger at his best and most relevant
The Question Concerning Technology frequently has been criticized as lacking content beneath Heidegger's stormy language.Not true!It may take more than one reading (it took me about 5), but once the meaning ofthe concept of Enframing really takes a hold of you, it becomes the mostpowerful and relevant philosophical concept since Nietzsche's will topower.Responding to the challenge of Enframing, man has reduced the worldof Being to his own self-referential bubble.Heidegger's words are attimes the bleakest that the 20th century has to offer, yet in the secondessay "The Turning," he suggests that Enframing's pervasivecontrol of the world also provides a context for true, authentic behaviorthrough the resistance of this powerful force.Authenticity is not apossibility for Heidegger without danger.For the detailed and patientreader, Heidegger provides a compelling description of global technologyand its implications, distinguishing between the essence of technology andtechnological activity as well as the vibrations the essence of technologystirs in the realms of truth and ethics. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Thepassionate and morally problematic love of two of the greatest thinkers of the century
This collection of letters is as one- sided as the relationship between Heidegger and Arendt was in certain respects. In this collection Heidegger is the one who speaks, over three - fourths of the one- hundred sixty- six letters are his. We do not have key documents, Arendt'searly letters to Heidegger which were destroyed either by Heidegger himself ora member of his family.
The relationship in the first stage at Marburg in 1925 was of the great intellectual figure Heidegger, already a person of tremendous reputation,thirty- five married with children, and that of an eighteen oldstudent worshipper. The illicit love affair was clearly passionate and deeply felt on both sides.
However in little more than a year there are signs that he does not mind her going out with a fellow student,and off to study somewhere else a sign perhaps of his being troubled that the affair exposed might cause harm to his reputation.
A second stage came with the rise of the Nazis to power , Arendt's exile, and Heidegger's becoming a collaborator with the Nazi regime. At this stage Arendt becomes disturbed about allegations of Heidegger's anti- Semitism.
The third stage came after a long hiatus in letter - writing. It was only after the war that there was a renewal of their relationship, though it is not clear that this was also a romantic renewal. For by this time Arendt was married to Heinrich Blucher. At this point Arendt played the role of advisor to Heidegger in helping him deal with the charges of collaboration with the Nazis. This chapter is not one which does Arendt credit. Her readiness to not simply excuse Heidegger for his revolting behavior, (including anti- Semitic remarks, dismissal of Jewish colleagues, a use of concepts of his own philosophy in a pro- Nazi speech, ) but to help him get off the hook reflects a loyalty void of all judgment. And this from the philosopher for whom 'judging' was a fundamental philosophical category.
Their post- war reconciliation was prompted and pushed by Heidegger's viciously anti- Semitic wife, Elfreide. Elfreide despised Arendt but understood that she could help Heidegger, and so encouraged the renewal of the relationship. Heidegger for his part never read Arendt's work and could not give her the kind of respect and esteem that she continued to give him.
Heidegger and Arendt are profound souls, and this is felt in the content and tone of these letters. They are people of high ideals and aspirations. They are two of the most significant thinkers of the twentieth century. Their story of love and friendship is a fascinating one. And whatever additional light is thrown on this relationship is eagerly seized upon by students of their work. Yet their relationship illicit at the outset , later became even more suspect as it worked to cover up Heidegger'simmoral behavior. The dishonesty and evasiseness of Heidegger in dealing with the charges against himis all the more reprehensible as it is that of one whose fundamental enterprise is in striving for Truth.Arendt'sexcess of caring to protect Heidegger are in painful and troubling contrast with her insensitity to survivors of the Shoah, this of course in her famous 'banality of evil' analysis of the action of Eichmann. Her tone in ' Eichmann in Jerusalem' was contemptuous and superior, a tone she might too have learned from Heidegger. There are those who claim that the final phase of the Heidegger- Arendt relationship involved a reversal in which she was the powerful one and he the one more needing and enslaved. But these letters do not seem to bear this out. Her loyalty to him and love enabled her to continue serving him too well to the end of their days. She died in the latter half of 1976 and he only six months later.

.

Some ontics
Most of the material in this correspondence between Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt shouldn't come as much of a surprise to most students who are familiar with these great thinkers's respective work. Although, there is surprisingly little discussion of the unfortunate political situation of Heidegger, I suppose the de-Nazification trials exhausted the subject. Still, this is a nice collection of letters; what unfolds are the painful vicissitudes of their affair, and the almost complete destruction of their (and their families) lives on account of WWII. What is a pleasure to read here, however, is Heidegger's casual remarks on his serious philosophical projects, it provides an excellent window into his craft. One reaction, though it hardly comes as a surprise: Heidegger was a terrible poet. For example:

"SONATA SONANS"
What rang rings.
It sinks
Into lament's unknown ware's
Sings into what no one dares,
What's formed from the wreath,
Takes place,
Gentle's love and woe
Into the Same.

Etc. Etc.

Perhaps the most problematic aspect of this collection is (at least for me), that it turns the reader into a creepy voyeur who peers into these personal love letters. Still, there is enough scholarly material contained within for scholars and students to make it a worthwhile collection.

Poetry and how personal histories matter
Everybody knows what two people in a situation like Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger in 1925, a female student and a married philosophy professor, shouldn't say to each other.With imaginary docudramas filling in the blanks of the lives of so many famous people in ways that fulfill the fantasies of millions of TV viewers, as well as the readers of historical novels, those who watch movies about Samson, and theologians who wonder what Adam and Eve ever saw in the forbidden fruit, it is a relief to be getting some actual documents from a famous romance.Heidegger's fame was growing rapidly at the beginning of this book, and Hannah Arendt was bound to become known for paying attention.The fiftieth item in this book, "Martin Heidegger for Hannah Arendt:Five Poems," ends with the short poems:

Correspondence

Godless is God
alone, and no
other thing--
death first
corresponds,
to the ring
of Being's poem,
the first.

DEATH

Death is, in the world's own rhyme,
Being's mountain chain.
Death will evade what's yours and mine
in the falling weight
falling toward silence's tor,
star of earth, nothing more.

For the friend's friend (pp. 63-64, prior to a letter dated Febr. 15, 1950).

Hannah Arendt responded in item 127, twenty years later, a few weeks after Heidegger sent her a poem about time, but trying to quote the earlier poem, from New York, on November 27, 1970:

Dear Martin,
For days, weeks, I have wanted to write to you, at least to tell you how much good your letter did me, your sympathy, the time poem as an aid to reflection.Together with the other from many, many years ago

Death is, in the world's design,
Being's mountain chain.
Death will evade what's yours and mine
In the falling weight.
Falling toward silence's tor,
Star of earth, nothing more. (p. 173).

British users of the English language might know that tor is a hill.Heinrich Blucher had died and a memorial service was held at Bard College on November 15.Like soldiers in a time of mounting casualties, people of different ages often have unsettled feelings about death because which will survive is not obvious.Hannah Arendt died in December, 1975, a few months before Heidegger's death in May, 1976.The `Romeo and Juliet' ending of fifty years of being German, Jewish, or American thinkers, bound together by an interest in the years that offered multiple lessons to be learned on both sides, makes this a bit more interesting to me than the other collections of Hannah Arendt's Letters with Karl Jaspers, Mary McCarthy, Hermann Broch, Kurt Blumenfeld, and Heinrich Blucher.

This book mentions Nietzsche or Heidegger's book about Nietzsche about a dozen times, but the interesting comments are in Hannah Arendt's tribute, "Martin Heidegger at eighty" on pages 148-162, and a brilliant short description of Heidegger as a fox in July 1953 which ends with:

But the fox living in the trap said proudly:So many fall into my trap; I have become the best of all foxes.And there was even something true in that:nobody knows the trap business better than he who has been sitting in a trap all his life.(p. 305).

Most of us could apply the trap business view to everything in life that requires our involvement.Longing for a few ideas, we can pick up a book like this as the inside and outside view of an intellectual trap.Lacking the ability to read this book all at once, I had bookmarks in several places for weeks at a time as my ability to comprehend was expanding to get a grip on what this book has to offer.The Index is helpful for those who have particular interests.Minor items like Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor are not to be found in the Index, however much it might have been on Heidegger's mind when he wrote his letter of April 12, 1950, listing Beethoven, opus 111 Adagio, Conclusion as an addressee on page 74 and thanking Hannah for the opportunity to listen to it:

"And now, Hannah, you have, on top of everything, and with a loving word, also given me Beethoven's Opus 111.Its sound has already become kin to the light I mentioned at the beginning of this letter.

"Elfride returns your greeting and kiss with a happy heart and is glad you returned home safely.Say hello to your dear husband from me."(p. 76).

The index does not have an entry for Elfride Heidegger on page 76, but it did list page 74, where Heidegger wrote about "what is loving about love that cast its light into my room when Elfride and you embraced.We will need time to make what has become of us our own:That you came, that what grew close in us became the closest closeness; that Elfride was helpful with all of it, that our love needs her love; that everything, including your safe return home, is reflected, clarified, and validated in everything else."

I'm sure that Nietzsche wrote that a married philosopher, like Socrates, ought to be cast in some comedy, as Aristophanes did with Socrates in `The Clouds' in 423 B.C., a comedy which placed last in the competition with Cratinous and Ameipsias at the Great Dionysia in the month of March, 423 B.C.Fortunately, Aristophanes revised his comedy, so "The Clouds' that we have today, "as purely farcical as the presentation of the philosopher himself suspended in a basket betwixt heaven and earth" in the notes for the Rogers translation, might be much better than running through it the first time.Heidegger's opportunity in these LETTERS to get himself right all over again after five half decades had passed has a miraculous quality, to say the least.

Arendt and Heidegger in Letters
This collection of letters is an absolute necessity for anyone interested in Hannah Arendt, and particularly her relationship with the controversial German philosopher (and mentor) Martin Heidegger.The letters are well annotated and there is a helpful introduction as well.The only problem is that there are relatively few letters from Arendt.And those that appear in the collection are somewhat concise, whether from the editing or simply because they were not extensive. As a result, the reader does not get the intimate and expansive view into Arendt's thinking and activities that one comes away with from reading, for example, her collection of letters to and from Mary McCarthy. Of particular interest is the exchange of poetry between the two--somewhat ironic given Heidegger's controversial career and purported anti-Semitism during the Nazi period.One cannot help thinking, as the letters pass by, as to why Arendt chose to treat Heidegger with such kid gloves; nonetheless, there is a touching quality about this late-in-life correspondence of two former lovers.Quite pleasant and informative and not overly technical in philosophical terms.

Finally Available
Perhaps it's a sign of the times in which we live, but the biggest stories of recent note in philosophy have been Heidegger's flirtation with National Socialism and the revelation of his affair with his student, Hannah Arendt, in the 1920s. The affair with Arendt has left a bad account of the affair (Ettinger) and a badly written novel in its wake, but perhaps these lumps of fool's gold have led us to the real thing, for they helped persuade Heidegger's son, Herman, to open the private files of his famous father and release these letters to the public. These, along with the letters to Arendt that are extant, comprise a volume that belongs in the library of every serious student of Arendt and Heidegger. It provides a glimpse of the lives and thought of two intellectual giants and of how events led to their estrangement and shaky reconciliation.

The first part of the book comes across as a one-way conversation, as only Heidegger's letters to Arendt are extant. Obviously Heidegger was smart enough to destroy Arendt's letters lest they fall into the hands of Mrs. H. The tone of these early letters is that of a besotted adolescent. Heidegger sends her bad poetry and, in one letter, refers to her as his "little wood nymph." As these letters were meant to be strictly private, we cannot help but suffer the embarrassment of an unintentional voyeur. However, the section ends on an ominous note with a letter from Heidegger in 1933 answering Arendt's charges that he is anti-Semitic. This came shortly after the ascension of Hitler and makes us sad that Heidegger destroyed Arendt's letter making the charges.

The correspondence begins anew after the war and only because Arendt saw it in her heart to forgive her former mentor and in effect bury the hatchet. Heidegger seems most pleased and the letters lead to a personal reconciliation with Arendt visiting Heidegger and his wife in Germany. But all was not to remain quiet. Heidegger had confessed all to his wife, and took her willingness to see Arendt again as a sign all was back to normal, as it were. The letters he sends in 1950 give the impression that he is more than willing to resume their affair; to once again have his cake and eat it, too. But a sudden dispatch from Heidegger warns Arendt to cancel a postponed visit and not to write for a while. Seems Elfride Heidegger was not the willing accomplice her husband believed her to be.

But time heals all and the letters (and visits) resume. Heidegger is more interested in what he is doing and the American response than in what Arendt is doing. In one telling letter, he admits he has no idea of what she means by "radical evil." Another subject on which Arendt treads lightly is that of Karl Jaspers: Jaspers and Heidegger attempted a reconciliation after the war, but failed and each has bitterness toward the other with Arendt playing the diplomat in the middle, though in her letters with Jaspers there is no doubt about whose side she is on.

Another missed opportunity is the sudden death of Merleau-Ponty a few months before he was to meet Heidegger in Marburg. Arendt has a higher opinion of him than does Heidegger, although in a philosophical debate I'd place my money on Merleau-Ponty, whose forays into aesthetics, ontology and physics expose Heidegger as stuck in a neo-Kantian continuum.

All in all, this is the book students of these two intellectual giants have waited for, and I, for one was not disappointed in the least. ... Read more

Book Description
Introduction to Phenomenological Research, volume 17 of Martin Heidegger's Gesamtausgabe, contains his first lectures given at Marburg in the winter semester of 1923-1924. In these lectures, Heidegger introduces the notion of phenomenology by tracing it back to Aristotle's treatments of phainomenon and logos. This extensive commentary on Aristotle is an important addition to Heidegger's ongoing interpretations which accompany his thinking during the period leading up to Being and Time. Additionally, these lectures develop critical differences between Heidegger's phenomenology and that of Descartes and Husserl and elaborate questions of facticity, everydayness, and flight from existence that are central in his later work. Here, Heidegger dismantles the history of ontology and charts a new course for phenomenology by defining and distinguishing his own methods. ... Read more

Book Description
A landmark discussion between two great thinkers--the second (combining volumes III and IV) of two volumes inquiring into the central issues of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A deep meditation
One of the greatest works on Nietzsche and about the end of Metaphysics. Heidegger re-discovers Nietzsche as a thinker, and not merely as a "critic of culture".

The Heideggerian view of Nietzsche in its entirety
Due to the political affiliation of Martin Heidegger and his place in history, it is perhaps difficult to analyze his works objectively. The temptation might be then to lift him from history, with the imagined goal of perhaps cleansing him from the troubling influences he chose to be in. But however Heidegger is read, whether in historical context, or from a "modern standpoint", he does have some interesting and original things to say about Friedrich Nietzsche. His politics was destructive, as history has shown, and that is a fact that can be discussed completely outside the context of this book.

This is a lengthy book, and concentrates on Nietzsche's work "The Will to Power". Space therefore prohibits a detailed review, but some of the more interesting discussions by the author include: 1. The classifying of Nietzsche as being the "last metaphysician" of the West. The author believes that his thought was a consummation of Western philosophy, and that the will to power is an appreciation of the decision that must be made as to whether the this final age is the conclusion of Western history or a prelude to another beginning. Nietzsche wanted philosophy to not shy away from the predicament it found itself in. Therefore the author encourages philosophers to not merely "toy" with philosophical thoughts, as this will place them merely at the boundary of the set of important philosophical issues. The will to power is a sign of courage that consists of shedding one's reservations, and in recognizing the stakes in the issues at hand. 2. The reading of Nietzsche as someone who believed that the essence of life is in "self-transcending enhancement", and not in Darwinian struggle. Value is to be equated with the enhancement of life. 3. The author's overview and explanation, and deduction of what "truth" meant for Nietzsche. Truth can become a "de-realization" and a hindrance to life, and therefore not be condition of life, and thus not a value. But for the author, Nietzsche wants to overcome nihilism, and this implies therefore that there must be a value greater than truth. And what is this value? It is art, says Nietzsche, which is "worth more than truth". 4. The author's discussion of the alleged biologism of Nietzsche. A reading of Nietzsche might tempt one to conclude that he was, but the author cautions that such a characterization of his writings would be unfounded. One must not base an understanding on mere impressions, and "unlearn" the abuse that has been leveled against the "catchword" called "biologism". The author therefore suggests that we must learn to "read". 5. The description of Nietzsche's epistemology as "schematizing a chaos". For Nietzsche, this schematizing is an act of imposing upon chaos as much regularity and as many forms as our practical needs require. This is an interesting move, for is the characterization of something as chaotic itself subject to the imposition of this regularity? But the author is certainly aware of this problem, for he discusses in detail the Nietzschean concept of chaos. His reading of Nietzsche in this regard is that chaos does not mean confusion or the removal of all order. It rather means that order is concealed, and is not understood immediately. Most eloquently, the author describes the Nietzschean epistemology as a "stream that in its flow first creates the banks and turns them toward each other in a more original way than a bridge ever would." Such a concept of knowledge may seem poetic and too ephemeral to support what is needed for activities such as science and technology, and this is correct. 6. The discussion of Nietzsche's stand on the law of contradiction. Heidegger reads Nietzsche as holding to (without an explicit admission on Nietzsche's part) an Aristotelian notion of this law, saying in effect that taking the position that the law of contradiction is the highest of all principles demands an answer to the question of what sorts of assertions it already fundamentally presupposes. Again following Aristotle, Heidegger uses 'Being" in his most powerful sense here, as it is 'Being' that has its presence and in permanence. This means that beings represented as such will take into account these two requirements via being "at the same time" and "in the same respect". But this permanence is disregarded when an individual makes a contradiction. It is a loss of memory about what is to be grasped in a "yes" and "no". Such an activity will not be harmless, says Heidegger, as one day its catastrophic consequences will be manifested. Heidegger sums up the law of noncontraction as that the "essence of beings consists in the constant absence of contradiction". Further, Heidegger says, Nietzsche's interpretation of the law of contraction is one of an "imperative". This means that its use is a declaration of "what is to count" and follows Nietzsche's conception of truth as a "holding-to-be-true". Nietzsche therefore says that "not being able to contradict is proof of an incapacity, not of a 'truth.'"

Heidegger in Secret Sacred Cowsville
This is heavy reading, as only philosophy would dare to be.It involves internal hysteria about matters which ordinary people are supposed to avoid in a way which Heidegger called the "often practiced procedure" of taking Nietzsche's revelations "as the harbinger of eruptingmadness."(p. 3)What Heidegger contributes to the psychoticmultiplicity is the recognition that Nietzsche's thought illustrates aparticular philosophy.As the first paragraph of this book puts it,"Nietzsche is that thinker who trod the path of thought to 'the willto power.'"By the next page, Heidegger turns away from individualmatters to what he feels, in the agony of our times, to be reallyphilosophical issues."Neither the person of Nietzsche nor even hiswork concern us when we make both in their connection the object of ahistoriological and psychological report."(p. 4)This is not simplereporting: people tend to think most deeply about whatever they find mosttroubling.Nietzsche could relate this kind of thing to the bite of a dogon a stone.Nothing is yielding here.Objections which suggest themselvesto anyone who tries to observe this effort might best be directedelsewhere, but in the realm of philosophy, this is the best example of thenotion that science is a sacred cow.A full understanding of the mentaleffort involved in this exercise might be closer to stripping away anyindividual's defenses than to the kind of herd instinct of those partieswhose imperviousness to thought is typical of what a political philosophywould normally represent.This is not an effort to produce a sacred cow. This is an attempt to penetrate the heart of secret sacred cowsville. ... Read more

Book Description
"The essays in this collection are all of very high quality and excellent scholarship. They represent the work of some of the most important feminist scholars of Heidegger and other Heidegger scholars more generally. The essays reflect diverse approaches to Heidegger, some critical, some sympathetic. This volume will give students and scholars a good introduction not only to the variety of approaches of feminist theorists but also to different approaches to Heidegger." —Kelly Oliver, SUNY, Stony Brook

Martin Heidegger's commitment to the idea that Dasein (human existence) is ultimately gender neutral, as well as several other major aspects of his thought, raise significant questions for feminist philosophers. The fourteen essays included in this volume clearly illustrate the ways in which feminist readings can deepen our understanding of his philosophy. They illuminate both the richness and the limitations of the resources his work can provide for feminist thought.

This volume engages the full scope of Heidegger's writings from Being and Time through his latest work, from his readings of the ancient Greek poets to his critique of modern technology. At the same time, it reflects a wide range of contemporary feminist concerns: the significance of gender difference; the role of the body in philosophical thought; the relationship between philosophy and the natural world, and between philosophy and the domestic realm; and the aspiration to move forward into a new, more just, political world.

Included in this volume are important new (or newly translated) essays by Ellen Armour, Carol Bigwood, Jack Caputo, Tina Chanter, Trish Glazebrook, Jennifer Gosetti, Luce Irigaray, Dorothy Leland, Mechthild Nagel, Gail Stenstad, and the editors—as well as a valuable historical and theoretical Introduction by Patricia Huntington, the first of Jacques Derrida's "Geschlecht" articles, and an important 1997 essay by Iris Marion Young. ... Read more

Book Description
It is well known that Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), perhaps the twentieth century's greatest philosopher, did not complete the publication of his magnum opus, BEING AND TIME, first published in part in 1927.The promised volumes were withheld, Heidegger said, because the philosophical language of his time failed to capture the essence of what he wanted to say.

During the 1930s and '40s Heidegger published little, lending an additional air of mystery to his famous "turning" (Kehre) from the language of classical philosophy to that of poetry.Why did Heidegger turn from philosophy to poetry?Why did he choose Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843), perhaps Germany's greatest, yet most difficult, poet?How can the poet help the thinker to complete his thoughts?How can Holderlin's poetry help Heidegger to think the truth of being?

The answers to these and many other questions are contained in this important book, which contains six essays on Holderlin that Heidegger published between the 1930s and the early 1970s.This long-awaited English translation is based on the latest edition (1996) of the book to appear in Heidegger's "Collected Works" and features several appendices, including a unique glimpse into Heidegger's study, showing his notes written in the margins of Holderlin's poetry.The original German of several of the poems has also been included.Both the translator and the German editor have added an introduction and epilogue, respectively.

This book, a singular dialogue between one of Germany's greatest thinkers and one of its greatest poets, will be of interest not only to philosophers, but to literary critics as well. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Infinite Dialogue
The philosophy of Martin Heidegger has the poetry of Holderlin as one of its nucleus of inspiration. The immnse difficulty of translating this wonderful text by Heidegger into English can only be appreciated by those who are familiar with the German language and have read the original German text. While the dialogue between Heidegger and Holderlin is often intense, dificult and complex, it is at the same time illuminating in terms of deliniating the task of the philosopher and the work of the poet. Dr. Hoeller's translation consitutes an authentic, rigorous and meditative re-creation of Heidegger's thinking. If there is any doubt regarding the faithfulness by the translator to the text the reader should start with the essay, "Holderlin and the Essence of Poetry," which is the most accessible of the essays. Dr. Hoeller has not tried to force the heideggerian text into the limited conceptual of the English language. On the contrary Dr. Hoeller has been able to maintain Heidegger's thinking alive and challenging.

Heidegger on Holderlin
The present volume is a translation of Erläuterungen zu Hölderlins Dichtung, Volume 4 (1981) of the German Collected Edition of Heidegger's works.It contains six essays written between 1936 and 1968, which are supplemented by two brief, related texts and an "Afterword" by the editor of the German edition, Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann.Only two of the essays have already appeared in translation: "Hölderlin and the Essence of Poetry" (1936) and "`Homecoming / To Kindred Ones'" (1943) were among the first Heidegger translated into English.In 1949, they were published, along with "What Is Metaphysics?" and "On the Essence of Truth" (to which they are related) as Existence and Being.The remaining essays appear here for the first time in English: "`As When On a Holiday . . .'" (1939), "`Remembrance'" (1942), "Hölderlin's Earth and Heaven" (1959), and "The Poem" (1968).Of the two supplementary texts presented in Elucidations of Hölderlin's Poetry, Heidegger's "Preface to the Repetition of the Address `Homecoming'" (1943) had already been translated (in Existence and Being).The other short text is Heidegger's "Preface to a Reading of Hölderlin's Poems" (1963), which can be heard on the phonograph recordingHeidegger liest Hölderlin (Pfullingen: Neske).
There is also "A Glimpse Into Heidegger's Study," which consists of photographic reproductions of several pages from one of Heidegger's copies of Hölderlin's poems which show Heidegger'smarginal notes to Hölderlin's poem "Griechenland."Perhaps the most accessible of the essays is "Hölderlin's Earth and Heaven," in which Heidegger meditates on this poem.Written by Heidegger when he was almost eighty years old, nearly all of the themes of the earlier essays are revisited in it: the forgotten question of the meaning of be[-ing] [Sein], our intimacy with nature and its mystery, the poet's calling, the provenance and essence of language, the sense of the holy on earth, the uniqueness of human presence among things, the spiritual core of experience, the omnipresence of the Greek philosophical tradition in Western sensibility, the primacy of thinking in existence, the meaning of belonging to a cultural heritage, and human historical destiny.
These essays are not literary criticism in the ordinary sense, although they have by now inspired a generation or two of scholars (beginning most notably with Jacques Derrida) who undertake various forms of textual analysis of works of philosophy and literature.As Heidegger notes, the essays "do not claim to be contributions to research in the history of literature or aesthetics.They spring from a necessity of thought" (p. 21).What, then, are these commentaries?They are not explanations of Hölderlin's poems, prose versions of his poetry; rather, they are Heidegger's efforts to get at Hölderlin's thought, which, like anyone's thought, he believes, remains and must remain a mystery.According to Heidegger, "we never know a mystery by unveiling or analyzing it to death, but only in such a way that we preserve the mystery as mystery" (p. 43).We should also note that, for Heidegger, authentic poetry is not a literary genre alongside drama and the novel, but is rather "the founding of be[-ing] in the word" (p. 59).The nature of poetry, Heidegger says, is ontological, not linguistic; its source is remembrance [Andenken] or "reflecting on something, [which] is a making firm . . ..Remembrance attaches thinkers to their essential ground (p. 165).In another place, Heidegger call this making firm or thickening of thought in recollection or reflection writing [Dichten] in the basic sense or "poetizing thinking," which Heidegger further characterizesas an activity of that special individual, the poet's poet (p. 52), who is situated "between" (p. 64) human beings and the gods.The poets, whom he calls demigods (p. 126), are analogous to the chthonic gods Heidegger finds reference to in the fable " Cura" (Hyginus), which he cites in Section 42 of Being and Time.In that text, we recall, Heidegger finds an early preontological reference to Sorge [minding, also translated as care], which he takes to be the fundamental feature of existence.
For the existential analyst, however, the most remarkable passages are found in "`Remembrance,'" where Heidegger presents a brilliant, albeit brief, phenomenology of shyness or retraint [Scheu] [ (p. 153).The context of the discussion of restraint is Heidegger's description of the nature of the poet, who thinks back to the origin of the rivers, that is, to the origin of the poets themselves, those unique individuals who mediate between what is of this earth and the gods (p. 126).The poet is characterized by restraint.What is restraint?It is not bashfulness [Schüchternheit] or timidity, Heidegger explains, nor is it based on insecurity.Instead, restraint is a keeping to oneself that is marked by a concerted reserve in the face of that about which one might easily be facile.Restraint is a keeping to oneself that guards something precious, for which one feels great affection.What evokes restraint first causes the poet to hesitate and withhold what he or she might be tempted to make available without further ado.The heart of restraint is forbearance [Langmut].Restraint is a model of what human presence might aspire to.In an age when self-assertion and "attitude" are accorded pre-eminence among the behaviors associated with success, fulfillment and self-realization.It contrasts with childish demands for immediate gratification and the unwillingness to postpone gratification.It is also seen in the capacity to wait-for answers, for a solution to life's everyday demands, for resolution to the congenital ambiguity of life on this earth, and for change in psychotherapy.
"Restraint is that reserved, patient, astonished remembrance of what remains close, in an intimacy that consists solely in keeping at a distance what is far off and thereby keeping it ever ready to arise from its source."The references to intimacy and distancing are familiar from Heidegger's other writings, where they are associated with be[-ing] [Sein] and its source.Given the relation of thinking and be[-ing], restraint is "knowing that the origin [of be[-ing] in its source] does not allow itself to be experienced directly."As Heidegger understands it, the fundamental tone of restraint, then, is humility with respect to our grasp of what is going on."Restraint determines the way to the origin" of be-[-ing].It is both our way out of inauthenticity and the way in to the source of be[-ing].Moreover, Heidegger adds, restraint is "more decisive than any sort of violence"--including interpretative violence in psychotherapy.
Finally, there is Heidegger's notion of recollection, which is not a retrieval of the past, as it is in psychoanalysis.Instead it is way of moving into the future by taking over one's destiny, authentically and with resolve.The poet's experience, once again, provides the model of this kind of recollection, which might serve all human beings, who, as Hölderlin says, "dwell poetically on this earth."

Heidegger on Holderlin
The present volume is a translation of Erläuterungen zu Hölderlins Dichtung, Volume 4 (1981) of the German Collected Edition of Heidegger's works.It contains six essays written between 1936 and 1968, which are supplemented by two brief, related texts and an "Afterword" by the editor of the German edition, Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann.Only two of the essays have already appeared in translation........The remaining essays appear here for the first time in English....Of the two supplementary texts presented in Elucidations of Hölderlin's Poetry, Heidegger's "Preface to the Repetition of the Address `Homecoming'" (1943) had already been translated (in Existence and Being).The other short text is Heidegger's "Preface to a Reading of Hölderlin's Poems" (1963), which can be heard on the phonograph recordingHeidegger liest Hölderlin (Pfullingen: Neske).
There is also "A Glimpse Into Heidegger's Study," which consists of photographic reproductions of several pages from one of Heidegger's copies of Hölderlin's poems which show Heidegger'smarginal notes to Hölderlin's poem "Griechenland."Perhaps the most accessible of the essays is "Hölderlin's Earth and Heaven," in which Heidegger meditates on this poem.Written by Heidegger when he was almost eighty years old, nearly all of the themes of the earlier essays are revisited in it: the forgotten question of the meaning of be[-ing] [Sein], our intimacy with nature and its mystery, the poet's calling, the provenance and essence of language, the sense of the holy on earth, the uniqueness of human presence among things, the spiritual core of experience, the omnipresence of the Greek philosophical tradition in Western sensibility, the primacy of thinking in existence, the meaning of belonging to a cultural heritage, and human historical destiny.
These essays are not literary criticism in the ordinary sense, although they have by now inspired a generation or two of scholars (beginning most notably with Jacques Derrida) who undertake various forms of textual analysis of works of philosophy and literature.As Heidegger notes, the essays "do not claim to be contributions to research in the history of literature or aesthetics.They spring from a necessity of thought" (p. 21).What, then, are these commentaries?They are not explanations of Hölderlin's poems, prose versions of his poetry; rather, they are Heidegger's efforts to get at Hölderlin's thought, which, like anyone's thought, he believes, remains and must remain a mystery.According to Heidegger, "we never know a mystery by unveiling or analyzing it to death, but only in such a way that we preserve the mystery as mystery" (p. 43).We should also note that, for Heidegger, authentic poetry is not a literary genre alongside drama and the novel, but is rather "the founding of be[-ing] in the word" (p. 59).The nature of poetry, Heidegger says, is ontological, not linguistic; its source is remembrance [Andenken] or "reflecting on something, [which] is a making firm . . ..Remembrance attaches thinkers to their essential ground (p. 165).In another place, Heidegger call this making firm or thickening of thought in recollection or reflection writing [Dichten] in the basic sense or "poetizing thinking," which Heidegger further characterizesas an activity of that special individual, the poet's poet (p. 52), who is situated "between" (p. 64) human beings and the gods.The poets, whom he calls demigods (p. 126), are analogous to the chthonic gods Heidegger finds reference to in the fable " Cura" (Hyginus), which he cites in Section 42 of Being and Time.In that text, we recall, Heidegger finds an early preontological reference to Sorge [minding, also translated as care], which he takes to be the fundamental feature of existence.
For the existential analyst, however, the most remarkable passages are found in "`Remembrance,'" where Heidegger presents a brilliant, albeit brief, phenomenology of shyness or retraint [Scheu] [ (p. 153).The context of the discussion of restraint is Heidegger's description of the nature of the poet, who thinks back to the origin of the rivers, that is, to the origin of the poets themselves, those unique individuals who mediate between what is of this earth and the gods (p. 126).The poet is characterized by restraint.What is restraint?It is not bashfulness [Schüchternheit] or timidity, Heidegger explains, nor is it based on insecurity.Instead, restraint is a keeping to oneself that is marked by a concerted reserve in the face of that about which one might easily be facile.Restraint is a keeping to oneself that guards something precious, for which one feels great affection.What evokes restraint first causes the poet to hesitate and withhold what he or she might be tempted to make available wit