Being and Truth

by Martin Heidegger, Gregory Fried (Translator), Richard Polt (Translator)

In these lectures, delivered in 1933-1934 while he was Rector of the University of Freiburg and an active supporter of the National Socialist regime, Martin Heidegger addresses the history of metaphysics and the notion of truth from Heraclitus to Hegel. First published in German in 2001, these two lecture courses offer a sustained encounter with Heidegger's thinking during a period when he attempted to give expression to his highest ambitions for a philosophy engaged with politics and the world. While the lectures are strongly nationalistic and celebrate the revolutionary spirit of the time, they also attack theories of racial supremacy in an attempt to stake out a distinctively Heideggerian understanding of what it means to be a people. This careful translation offers valuable insight into Heidegger's views on language, truth, animality, and life, as well as his political thought and activity.

Genres: Philosophy, German Literature

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

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

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amidst naïveté about Hitler, going on about Plato’s allegory of the cave, his usual spiel, and a weird ending, what I got out of it is that it’s human to be confused, but also a choice. On the other hand, was this just frontin though? Consider his more private thoughts in the Black Notebooks of this period.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are the two lectures that Heidegger delivered while he was the Nazi-appointed rector at the University of Freiburg. The first and direct consequence of this is that the first lecture is quite diminished by Heidegger's frequent absences; while the second lecture is just a repetition of a previous lecture delivered two years before - “The essence of truth” (he never repeated a course before or afterwards). The second consequence is that there are a lot of Nazi-related and current political events mentioned in these lectures. Heidegger hoped that this radical metaphysical revolution will join and use the in-progress Nazi revolution; and thus he is full of enthusiasm and pathos. Soon - and there are already several indications here - he will realize that he was quite naive about Nazis and their purposes.

The first lecture deals with the fundamental question of philosophy (i.e., the question of Being) and why this question was completely forgotten by the Western metaphysics that culminated and was consummated in Hegel's philosophy (or better said, in Hegel's theo-logy or the mathematization of the Christian concept of God). The reasons for this are two folded: first because the dominant Christian worldview - with its creation and definitive story - denied the fundamental question; and second because of the mathematical ideal of knowledge that was concerned only with certainty. As such, Heidegger proposed a return to the Ancient Greeks experience of Being and Truth, the embrace of Nietzsche's “God is dead” against the theological, and a return to uncertainty as the main criteria for question-worthiness and against the mathematical.

The second lecture deals with Plato as the pivotal point where the original understanding of truth as aletheia gave way to the understanding of truth as correspondence and certainty. Heraclitus, Parmenides, and the ancient Greeks are still represented in the “cave allegory” (explained quite with amazing details and insights here by Heidegger). However, in “Theaetetus” lines 184-187, truth moves from beings to propositions understood as correspondence; and this shift to propositions and correspondence will stay and dominate more and more in the thinking of Aquinas, Descartes, and Kant - and quite totally during the present days.

[Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is composed of two lectures: "The fundamental question of philosophy"(summer semester 1933) and "On the essence of truth"(winter semester 1933-1934)


"The fundamental question of philosophy"

This lecture goes into the connections between logic(mathematical method) and metaphysics, culminating in Hegel's "Science of Logic".


"On the essence of truth"

This lecture has two parts:
Part 1, Plato's allegory of the cave
Part 2, Interpretation of Theaetetus

Part 1 shows how truth as correctness first shows up in Greek philosophy, in Plato's allegory of the cave

Part 2 gives an interpretation of Plato's "Theaetetus". "Theaetetus" begins with the question, "what is knowing"? Two answers are investigated, perception and view. Perception is rejected on the grounds that is does not meet the requirement of the human being involving himself with what he encounters. View, on the other hand, does involve himself with what he encounters. View is explored in it's ambiguity, as a correct view and a false view. According to the philosophical principles of the time, a false view is declared not to be possible, yet it still exists. Heidegger says Plato sees what the false is, by disregarding the philosophical principles and sticking to the phenomenon.

[mark]

“An enemy is each and every person who poses an essential threat to the Dasein of the people and its individual members. The enemy does not have to be external, and the external enemy is not even always the more dangerous one. And it can seem as if there were no enemy. Then it is a fundamental requirement to find the enemy, so that this standing against the enemy may happen and so that Dasein may not lose its edge.”

Such a brilliant mind in the service of such pathetic ends.

[Tereza Pešáková]

Velmi, velmi, velmi náročné! Netroufám si hodnotit.

[Mavaddat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is basically two works in one volume: The first is a reproduction of an outline or note sketches that Heidegger made for himself to guide his thinking in his seminar lectures; the second is the book that already exists, "The Essence of Truth", which is a fully fleshed out phenomenological examination of Plato's cave allegory (paying very close attention to the experiences of being bounded, set free, and then subsequently returning to liberate others). Since the first is extremely sparse, it hardly makes for satisfying or indeed engaging reading material. One would need to have already a good working knowledge of Heidegger's thought processes to guess at how he moves from one thesis to the next (what reasoning he's employing between the bones).

[Ondrej Havlicek]

The first philosophical book I have read. At that time, I didn't really understand much, except veritas adequatio rei et intellectus:-)