Logic As the Question Concerning the Essence of Language

by Martin Heidegger

Aims to transform logic into a reflection on the nature of language.

Genres: Philosophy

177 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

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]

Logic, logos, and language are just pretexts for Heidegger - and as such they appear only marginally in this book. This is the place where Heidegger publicly accepts and confronts National Socialism with his philosophy. He just resigned his Nazi-appointed Rector position at the University of Freiburg, but it seems that he is still hoping to be the main and official philosopher; and as such he shows here that he is ready to direct and lead the entire Germany into a metaphysical revolution against modernity. The main enemies are: Descartes, liberalism, subject/I, the understanding of a human being as a rational and present-at-hand being, public opinion and press, the university with its dogmatic and objectifying scientists and historiographers, the theories of the state and communities as contractual aggregations of subjects and their rights, and similar. To this purpose - Heidegger is presenting at length and with extreme passion: the temporal and historical understanding of human being; the fundamental importance of determination, tradition, and moods in our being understood as Dasein; the misunderstandings of our bodies; the anti-Marxist and anti-economic conception of labor; care as exposedness into beings and delivery over to being; poetry; and so on.

[Fabio Molinari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non del tutto condivisibile ma meno criptico del solito heidegger.

[Edmundo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete garbage. Misleading title. Confused discussion. Terrible argumentation. Terrible philosophy. Don't bother. It'll take a long time to get over how terrible this was.

[Alexandru Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

mr. H. in his nazi period.

in a way, the title is misleading (as almost all his titles). logic deals with logos, logos means talk, so logic deals with talk, he says. and, when we ask what is language and in which way language exists, we must also ask the question about the human being, as zoon logon ehon.

and the bulk of the book is exploring and weaving several of his favorite topics - historicity, resoluteness, time - as an answer to the question about the human being - "who are we?".

and there are moments in which he uses nazi-like language (lots of talk about Volk, work, decision, mission and so on) - which seems to flow naturally from his other concepts. but i suppose it is more in order to win over his (nazi) audience.

and some pretty insightful pages about language (and not only), scattered through some chapters.