Pathmarks

by Martin Heidegger, William McNeill (Editor)

This is the first time that a seminal collection of fourteen essays by Martin Heidegger (originally published in German under the title Wegmarken) has appeared in English in its complete form. The volume includes new or first-time translations of seven essays, and thoroughly revised, updated versions of the other seven. They will prove an essential resource for all students of Heidegger, whether they work in philosophy, literary theory, religious studies or intellectual history.

Genres: Philosophy, German Literature

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

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

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Selection that Heidegger considered representative for his path of thinking; that is pathmarks over 40 years. Some of the essays are quite unknown and brought to the forefront here for the first time. For example, “Phenomenology and Theology” where Heidegger argues that theology is the science of faith, is such an unknown and great essay. His professorship address “What is Metaphysics?” fundamentally defined his thinking and he is going back to it directly, with an introduction, and again with a postscript. This is also the piece that defined his antagonism with the mainstream, but mainly against the emerging analytic philosophy, by talking about Nothing, anxiety, boredom, along with his frontal attack on sciences, their ontology, and formal logic. Plato and Aristotle are reinterpreted and in some way resurrected from the modern understanding; but also partially held responsible for pushing philosophy into metaphysics. So is Junger and his piece dedicated to Heidegger's birthday “Across the Line”; and partially is Kant along with his metaphysical understanding of Being as positing. On the other hand, Hegel is more or less dismissed for failing to properly understand the early Greeks. It is quite amazing to witness how deep and far Heidegger can take some of Junger's insights into modern nihilism and rescue them from their metaphysical interpretation. Nowhere is Heidegger explaining himself and his philosophy better than in “Letter on Humanism”. Sartre is immediately dismissed; but Heidegger is quite reasonable, patient, and even willing to use common language and arguments in order to place his work and thinking into a traditional philosophical context.

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pathmarks To Heidegger

Martin Heidegger (1889 - 1976) is best-known as the author of a seminal work of 20th Century philosophy, the notoriously difficult "Being and Time" (1927). Heidegger wrote a great deal besides "Being and Time", and many of his important writings are gathered into this collection of essays, "Pathmarks". Heidegger first published the volume as "Wegmarken" in 1967 and it appeared in English in 1998. The book consists of 14 previously-published essays ranging in dates from 1919 through 1961.

As does "Being and Time", the essays in "Pathmarks" make for difficult reading. But they largely reward the effort required. While much of the essays remain opaque, I found that they increased my understanding of "Being and Time" and of the direction of Heidegger's thought. For those unfamiliar with the direction of Heidegger's work, Heidegger is concerned with the nature of "Being" rather than with the study of particular beings. Heidegger thinks that Western thought has lost understanding of the nature of Being - and of the importance of the question of Being - through its preoccupation with beings, especially with science and technology. He seeks to restore an understanding of the importance of thinking about Being. Heidegger also wants to change the reader's understanding of truth from a view in which, say, sentences are true when they somehow represent reality (such as, the sentence "the cat is on the mat" is true when a cat is on the mat) to a view in which truth is a property of things. This view of truth ties into Heidegger's thoughts on Being. Truth is a disclosedness, a presencing of Being rather than a representation. The representational view of truth may have some merit in considering beings, but it has come to displace the presencing nature of truth in considering Being.

In "Being and Time" Heidegger approached Being through his study of human being, which he called "dasein". Heidegger studied dasein through what he termed a phenomenological method that he derived and changed from his mentor, the German philosopher Edmund Husserl. Shortly after writing that book, his thought underwent a turn (a Kehre in Heidegger's words) in which he tried to focus on Being rather than dasein. He tried to approach Being through language, thought and especially poetry rather than through concepts. His later works thus go far beyond phenomenology and frequently are delivered in a style that approaches preaching.

"Pathmarks" includes works that predate "Being and Time" as well as late essays that show the turn. The book thus opens with a long early essay "Comments on Karl Jaspers's Psychology of Worldviews" which shows Heidegger's early thinking and is a predecessor of "Being and Time". The essay "Phenomenology and Theology" was written about the same time as "Being and Time" and it is a rare venture by Heidegger into Christian doctrine. But this essay also includes some additional and important material that Heidegger added much later, in 1964. The collection includes Heidegger's 1929 lecture, "What is Metaphysics" which explores the relationship between science and philosophy in a provocative way. The positivist philosopher Rudolph Carnap later ridiculed this essay for its proclamation that "the nothing nothings itself." Heidegger elaborated upon and tried to explain this lecture in a "Postscript" that he wrote in 1943, also included in "Pathmarks."

This collection includes three important essays, "On the Essence of Ground" (1929) which elaborates the distinction between Being and beings, the companion essay "On the Essence of Truth" (1930) which discusses truth as presencing. In the "Letter on `Humanism' of 1946 Heidegger distances himself from existentialism, responds to criticisms of his work, and explains the turn in his thought.

I was fascinated by the essays in this volume in which Heidegger discusses great earlier philosophers and relates their work to his own. "Pathmarks" includes important essays on Plato (his allegory of the cave and concept of truth), Aristotle (his concept of "nature"), Leibniz, on the nature of Being, Kant, on the ontological argument, and Hegel, on his view of Greek philosophy. It is always wise to be wary of one philosopher's understanding of other philosophers, and Heidegger's interpretations are often criticized. I find his readings of his predecessors frequently insightful. And these essays are important in approaching Heidegger's own thought.

Heidegger saw his works as reflections on Being rather than as the development of a systematic philosophy. It is best in this matter to take him at his word. Heidegger was tarnished by his political commitments during the 1930s, and these commitments must be kept in mind in working through and assessing his writings. However, there is still much to be learned here.

My recommendation is that readers with some background in philosophy should first struggle through "Being and Time" before approaching the essays in this collection. Readers who become fascinated with "Being and Time" and who want to pursue Heidegger's thought further will learn a great deal from turning to "Pathmarks."

Robin Friedman

[مسعود حسینی · Rating 5 out of 5]

این کتاب، نشانه های راه یا به آلمانی Wegmarken، مجموعه ای است از درسگفتارهای نسبتا کوتاه و آثاری که هایدگر آنها را در فاصله ی سال های 1919 تا 1955 ایراد کرده یا نگاشته است. عناوین آنها از این قرار است:
1. اظهار نظرهایی در باب "روانشناسی جهان بینی ها"ی کارل یاسپرس
2. پدیدارشناسی و الهیات
3.از آخرین درسگفتارهای ماربورگ
4. متافیزیک چیست؟
5. در باب ذات مبنا
6. در باب ذات حقیقت
7. آموزه ی حقیقت افلاطون
8.در باب ذات و مفهوم φυσις در "فیزیک" B ارسطو
9. پی نوشت بر "متافیزیک چیست؟"
10. نامه در باب "انسان گرایی"
11. مقدمه بر "متافیزیک چیست؟"
12. در باب پرسش هستی
13. هگل و یونانیان
14. رای کانت درباره ی هستی

از این میان، من 6 و 7 و 13 رو خوندم، و موارد 4، 9، 10، و 11 رو هم از ترجمه فارسی جمادی و رشیدیان قبلا خونده بودم.
هایدگر در مقاله ی "در باب ذات حقیقت" ابتدا تلقی مرسوم ازحقیقت، یعنی مطابقت، را تحلیل می کند و سپس نشان می دهد که ناپوشیدگی شرط تواناساز یا شرط امکان یا همان ذات حقیقت به مثابه مطابقت است. در مقاله ی "نظریه حقیقت افلاطون" به تفسیر هرمنوتیکی - پدیدارشناسانه ی "تمثیل غار" افلاطون می پردازد. نتیجه گیری او این است که نفس تمثیل غار موکول به تلقی حقیقت به مثابه ناپوشیدگی است، اما افلاطون، خود، به این امر وقوف ندارد و لذا اگرچه حقیقت را به مثابه Ιδεα، یا دیدار یا ایده یا ناپوشیدگی بازمی شناسد، آنجا به خطا می رود که "کذب" را از دایره حقیقت بیرون می کند. حال آنکه پوشیدگی و ناپوشیدگی (که نزد افلاطون به مفهوم کذب تنزل می کند) به یک اندازه مقوم ذات حقیقت، یعنی شرط امکان حقیقت، هستند. به نظر هایدگر، افلاطون با تلقی حقیقت به مثابه Ιδεα یا ایده، بنیان نظریه ی مطابقی حقیقت را در سنت غرب گذاشته است. چرا؟ چون حقیقت دیگر متقوم به پیکار میان ناپوشیدگی و پوشیدگی نیست، بلکه فقط ناپوشیدگی ایده است؛ از طرف دیگر، انسان به هنگام مشاهده ی Ιδεα یا ایده، نسبت نظری یا شناختی با آن برقرار می کند و لذا پای مطابقت تصور با متصور و خطا به میان می آید؛ در ضمن، شناخت مبدل به فعالیتی نظری و پرمشقت و لذا تخته بند فعالیت بشری می شود.
هایدگر در مقاله ی هگل و یونانیان مدعی است که یونان آغاز و هگل پایان فلسفه است. هگل نخستین کسی بود که تفکر یونانی را از منظر فلسفی به دست اندیشه سپرد. زیرا تاریخ را افق تفکر و نفس تاریخ فلسفه را خودگشایی روح به سوی خویشتن دانسته بود. به نظر هایدگر، حقیقت نزد هگل یقین مطلق سوژه ی مطلق خودشناسا است، نه ناپوشیدگی! هگل هستی را بی واسطه ی نامتعین می دان و یونانیان را مرحله ی اول، تز، و "هنوز نه" ی فلسفه می شمارد، مرحله ای که با بی واسطه ی نامتعین سروکار دارد. از نظر هایدگر، هگل تاریخ فلسفه یونان را در چهار کلمه فهم می کند: 1. Εν یا هن که پارمنیدس نماینده ی آن بود، یعنی "واحد"؛ .2. Λολος که هراکلیتوس نماینده آن بود، یعنی "عقل"؛ 3. Ιδεα که افلاطون نماینده آن بود، یعنی "اندیشه"؛ و 4. Ενεργεια که ارسطو نماینده آن بود، یعنی "فعلیت". هایدگر تفسیر خویش از این مراحل چهارگانه ی فلسفه یونانی بر حسب فلسفه ی هگل را به دست می دهد و در نهایت متذکر می شود که هگل فلسفه ی یونان را بر حسب تجربه ی اصیل یونانی از حقیقت یا ناپوشیدگی فهم نمی کند؛ یک دلیلش اینکه هگل با اشاره به این گفته ی پارمنیدس که "اندیشه و هستی همانند"، پارمنیدس را گام نخست در تفکر دکارتی تعبیر می کند.
به نظر من، این کتاب برای ورود به اندیشه ی هایدگر بسیار مطلوب و خوب است.

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are multiple theses that are prevalent in each of these essays: There is no ground; existence is not a predicate; being reveals itself through un-concealment; why is there something rather than nothing; determing being from being of beings only gives being analogously (in the manner of Thomas Aquinas) while being is not knowable directly (Duns Scotus said being is directly knowable, Heidegger wrote his PhD on Scotus but definitely leans towards Aquinas overall in these essays and within his life project).


Meaning must come from ourselves, we cannot outsource it. Foundations are determined by us; categories are what we say they are. Why is there something rather than nothing? There is no good answer. Existence is not a predicate, that is, the concept about the concept of a thing only makes sense with the presumption of existence since we are already here (read Fichte’s Science of Knowledge, and it is always better to have a real ham sandwich than a perfect imaginary ham sandwich, or in other words, Anslem’s ontological proof is flawed, or so sayeth Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant and Heidegger would too).

Being is thought that is revealed from the presence in the clearing from the gathering that we bring together, un-concealment comes about when dasein takes a stand on its on understanding about its own world for when it cares. Or as when Heidegger explains Kant, it’s never ‘I think’, it’s always ‘I think about thinking’, or more precisely from these essays ‘the thoughts about our thoughts’ is as close as we get to ‘being as thinking’. As Heidegger says in these essays, 'language is the house of being', or as Gadamer, a student of Heidegger says later in Truth and Method “All understanding is interpretation. Being that can be understood is language”.

I usually don’t see Heidegger as an existentialist (nor did he), but there was a couple of times in these essays he made freedom as an end in itself and for itself. That is definitely an existentialist belief, but he did reject “existence precedes essence”.

A couple of times Heidegger’s obvious love for the fascist world-view comes through. He loves his Spengler and Nietzsche, particularly Will to Power with all of its incoherence and the privileging of his own class from his excessive pride based on nothing more than feelings for his own specialness based on nothing but that it is his own culture. (Trump morons would eat that fascist stuff up and they all believe they have special insights into an esoteric world view known only by them and will eat horse worm medicine instead of getting vaccinated because they are deluded fools and want nothing more than to exercise their excessive pride in order to show their specialness. I truly can’t stand what I’m seeing with 45% of the country that are MAGA hat wearing morons).

There’s a coherence to the life project of a philosopher such as Heidegger and within each of these carefully chosen essays Heidegger does not stray from the concerns highlighted in the first paragraph of this review.

[Ernie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid collection that fills in the gaps between Being and Time and the later essays on technology and poetry. "Phenomenology and Theology" is excellent, as the "Letter on Humanism." This collection shows Heidegger as a master of the essay, a form that suits his method of "questioning" far better than the systematic approach he adopted in Being and Time.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

AN EXCELLENT COLLECTION OF HEIDEGGER’S ESSAYS

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was an influential and controversial German philosopher, primarily concerned with Being, and phenomenology---who was widely (perhaps incorrectly) also perceived as an Existentialist. His relationship with the Nazi party in Germany has been the subject of widespread controversy and debate [e.g., Heidegger and Nazism, Heidegger and the Nazis, Heidegger's Crisis: Philosophy and Politics in Nazi Germany, Heidegger and the Question of National Socialism, etc.]

This volume includes fourteen essays, seven of which are translated here for the first time. The essays were written between 1919 and 1961.

He wrote in the 1927 lecture “Phenomenology and Theology”: “Within the circle of actual or possible sciences of beings---there is between any two only a relative difference, based on the different relations that in each case orient a science to a specific region of beings. On the other hand, every positive science is ABSOLUTELY, not relatively, different from philosophy. Our thesis, then, is that theology is a positive science, and as such, therefore, is absolutely different from philosophy.” (Pg. 41)

Later in the same essay, he says, “faith is an appropriation of revelation that co-constitutes the Christian occurrence, that is, the mode of existence that specifies a factical Dasein’s Christianness as a particular form of destiny. Faith is the believing-understanding mode of existing in the history revealed, i.e., occurring, with the Crucified.” (Pg. 45) He adds, “Formally considered, then, faith as the existing relation to the Crucified is a mode of historical Dasein, of human existence, of historically being in a history that discloses itself only in and for faith. Therefore theology, as the science of faith, that is, of an intrinsically HISTORCAL … mode of being, is to the very core a HISTORICAL science. And indeed it is as unique sort of historical science in accord with the unique historicity involved in faith, i.e., with ‘the occurrence of revelation.’” (Pg. 46)

In another lecture, he states, “We ourselves are the source of the idea of being. But this source must be understood as the transcendence of Dasein as ecstatic. Only on the ground of transcendence is there the articulation of the various ways of being. Determining the idea of being as such is, however, a difficult and ultimate problem.” (Pg. 71)

In the essay ‘What is Metaphysics?” he says: “Da-sein means: being held out into the nothing. Holding itself out into nothing, Dasein is in each case already beyond beings as a whole. Such being beyond beings we call transcendence. If in the ground of its essence Dasein were not transcending, which not means, if it were not in advance holding itself out into the nothing, then it could never adopt a stance toward beings nor even toward itself.” (Pg. 91)

He concludes in this same essay, “Metaphysics is the fundamental occurrence in our Dasein. It is that Dasein itself. Because the truth of metaphysics dwells in this abyssal ground it stands in closest proximity to the constantly lurking possibility of deepest error. For this reason no amount of scientific rigor attains to the seriousness of metaphysics. Philosophy can never be measured by the standard of the idea of science… Philosophy gets under way only by a peculiar insertion of our own existence into the fundamental possibilities of Dasein as a whole. For this insertion it is of decisive importance, first, that we allow space for beings as a whole; second, that we release ourselves from those idols everyone has and to which they take its full course, so that it swings back into the fundamental question of metaphysics that the nothing itself compels: Why are there beings at all, and any not far rather Nothing?” (Pg. 96)

In a later Postscript to this essay, he observes, “Readiness for anxiety is a Yes to assuming a stance that fulfills the highest claim, a claim that is made upon the human essence alone. Of all beings, only the human being, called upon by the voice of being, experiences the wonder of all wonders: that beings ARE. The being that is thus called in its essence into the truth of being is for this reason always attuned in an essential manner.” (Pg. 234)

He states, “Metaphysics is that knowledge wherein Western historical humanity preserves the truth of its relations to beings as a whole and the truth about those beings themselves. In a quite essential sense, meta-physics is ‘physics’…” (Pg. 185)

In his Letter on Humanism, he says: “the decline of language is… already a consequence of, the state of affairs in which language under the dominance of the modern metaphysics of subjectivity almost irremediably falls out of its element. Language still denies us its essence: that it is the house of the truth of being. Instead, language surrenders itself to our mere willing and trafficking as an instrument of domination over beings.” (Pg. 243)

In the same essay, he explains, “the way that the human being in his proper essence becomes present to being is ecstatic inherence in the truth of being. Through this determination of the essence of the human being the humanistic interpretations of the human being as [rational animal], as ‘person,’ as spiritual-ensouled-bodily being, are not declared false and thrust aside. Rather, the sole implication of is that the highest determinations of the essence of the human being in humanism still do not realize the proper dignity of the human being. To that extent the thinking in ‘Being and Time’ is against humanism.” (Pg. 251) But he later adds, “opposition to ‘humanism’ in no way implies a defense of the inhuman but rather opens other vistas.” (Pg. 265)

He concludes this essay, “It is time to break our habit of overestimating philosophy and of thereby asking too much of it. What is needed in the present world crisis is less philosophy, but more attentiveness in thinking; less literature, but more cultivation of the letter.” (Pg. 276)

In another essay, he says, “Metaphysics, however, speaks continually, and in the most various ways of Being. Metaphysics gives, and seems to confirm, the appearance that it asks and answers the question concerning Being. In fact, metaphysics never answers the question concerning the truth of Being, for it never asks this question. Metaphysics does not ask this question because it thinks Being only by representing beings as beings. It means beings as a whole, although it speaks of Being. It names Being and means beings as beings.” (Pg. 281)

This is an excellent selection of Heidegger’s writings; it will be of great interest to both those “new” to his philosophy, and to those who are well-acquainted with him.

[Bruno Dal Molin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite cool, but some passages were very tough. Heidegger lead me to wonder about the nature of being - moving “beyond metaphysics”. He analyzes the thought of several important thinkers here in respect to being and also includes some essays that are not commentary on others.

[Edward Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the Essence of Being is quite difficult to grasp. "Kants Thesis about Being" deals with the categories possibility, actuality, and necessity in Kants table of categories. Possibility corresponds to form or the "inner" and actuality to matter or the "outer." The Transcendental Unity of Apperception is the "unity" and "being" of inner and outer. "Being is Thinking" he quotes an Ancient Greek as saying- maybe Parmenides. Possibility corresponds to the "is not" and actuality to "is." Thus, being constantly withdraws or presence and absence are codependent and inseparable. This may be a shot in the dark but he says the Transcendental Unity of Apperception is based on "affectation." This may be a reference to "moods" or "throwness" or that which is just given pre-theoretically and pre-philosophically and Dasein can't escape. The Transcendental Unity of Apperception is rock bottom so to speak.

[Alex Obrigewitsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid collection of essays and whathaveyou