Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy

by Martin Heidegger, Richard Rojcewicz

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 (of Grundbegriffe der antiken Philosophie) 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.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published October 22, 2007

About the author

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was a German philosopher whose work is perhaps most readily associated with phenomenology and existentialism, although his thinking should be identified as part of such philosophical movements only with extreme care and qualification. His ideas have exerted a seminal influence on the development of contemporary European philosophy. They have also had an impact far beyond philosophy, for example in architectural theory (see e.g., Sharr 2007), literary criticism (see e.g., Ziarek 1989), theology (see e.g., Caputo 1993), psychotherapy (see e.g., Binswanger 1943/1964, Guignon 1993) and cognitive science (see e.g., Dreyfus 1992, 2008; Wheeler 2005; Kiverstein and Wheeler forthcoming).

Reviews

[Carl Hindsgaul · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could probably have been a good book if Heidegger had finished it in his lifetime. But in its current form - with abstruse notes, offhand remarks, and in general a very dry, staccato style - it is not really worth reading.

Especially because, on the one hand, you cannot really read it without prior knowledge of ancient philosophy (difficult as it is to tell since I of course do, it is surely not a pedagogical introduction to the subjects at hand), but, on the other hand, if do you have that, you do not need to read it - nothing particularly priceless is presented; we have only a walk through of the old philosophers, although we also have a window into Heidegger's take on the ancients. Would you be surprised if I told you that all the ancients were really looking for the being of beings?

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is unique for Heidegger in three ways, firstly he really address what the books title is about, secondly its sentences are easily read individually, but the book itself is distractingly organized and ambiguous in a bad way, not in a usual Heidegger way. If you read the description you know this are lecture notes (like a great many Heidegger books), however with this book he rushed his notes. He was writing Being and Time concurrently. So the entire book is written for his benefit not a readers. Their are students' notes in the back that may make it easier to work through, my format did not have them for some reason. So that may make the difference.

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic summary of Greek thought. Makes me want to read more Aristotle.