Introduction to Philosophy―Thinking and Poetizing

by Martin Heidegger, Phillip Jacques Braunstein (Translator)

First published in 1990 as the second part of volume 50 of Heidegger's Complete Works, Introduction to Philosophy presents Heidegger's final lecture course given at the University of Freiburg in 1944 before he was drafted into the German army. While the lecture is incomplete, Heidegger provides a clear and provocative discussion of the relation between philosophy and poetry by analyzing Nietzsche's poetry. Here, Heidegger explores themes such as the home and homelessness, the age of technology, globalization, postmodernity, the philosophy of poetry and language, aesthetics, and the role of philosophy in society. Translated into English for the first time, this text will be of particular interest to those who study Heidegger's politics and political philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Poetry, German Literature, 20th Century

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

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

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read but I’d advise reading Being and Time before this if you want to see a different perspective then what Heidegger even mentions in this short book.

My favorites here include (1) the observation that you must first understand what is thinking before you can think and what is poetry before you can poetize. (2) the observation that creativity has three levels (I would say most humans only achieve the basic level, few the second level and hardly anyone gets to the third level) (3) the failure of Heidegger to recognize Nietzche failed to ground his “will” in “will to power” (4) the knock down argument that Plato is right when he says there must be forms humans use to think or do anything - completely agree with this one since only a fool would try to refute it because they would refute themselves as soon as they opened their cakeholes - love this part!

[Mounir · Rating 2 out of 5]

لم أستطع تقييم الكتاب بأكثر من نجمتين ليس لعيب فيه وإنما بسبب صعوبته الشديدة : لم أستطع أن أستوعب أغلب ما جاء فيه، وعزائي أن كتابات هيدجر معروف عنها الصعوبة والتعقيد والغموض. والشىء الذي خفف من صعوبة الكتاب إلى حد ما مقدمة المترجم وتعقيبه على المقالة الثانية.
وهناك شىء مهم لاحظته في هذا الكتاب الصغير : الترجمة الرصينة للدكتور عثمان أمين الذي كان رئيسا لقسم الفلسفة بجامعة القاهرة. وملحوظة أخرى شكلية ولكني أجدها مهمة : في المقال الأول "ما الفلسفة" يتحدث هيدجر بالتفصيل عن أصل كلمة "فيلوسوفيا" اليونانية واشتقاقها ومترادفاتها ويورد الكثير من الكلمات اليونانية على مدى عدة صفحات. والجميل في هذا الكتاب الصغير الذي صدر في الستينات (وما أدراك ما الستينات !!) أن الكلمات اليونانية مطبوعة بجودة عالية جدا ربما حتى أفضل من الحروف العربية في الكتاب.

[Edward Moran · Rating 2 out of 5]

He discusses Nietzsche's "poetizing" and holderlin's "thinking." He connects modern rationality with "mediocrity." He says something about the idea of "homelessness" in nietzsche and how it is having lost a home without yet finding a new one but still searching.

[Fabian Ruiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

If possible, should be read with a whiteboard, coffee, and several graphs. At risk of several headaches.

Most important piece of relief is that it's okay if not everything is comprehensible. I went ahead and looked for anything that could help guide me while reading and found that even the translator for my edition had hour long lectures making sense of Heidegger's work. If you're a fan of Heidegger, or get inspired after reading Being and Time, by all means go crazy

[Richard Alves · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ultimamente não tenho lido nada interessante por conta de outras prioridades, então resolvi logar essa porcaria que minha orientadora passou pra compreender a determinação da essência da ciência a partir do conceito originário de verdade pra ajudar na minha interpretação, que segundo ela é "parca". Ajudou? Quase nada, pois já são quase dois meses tentando entender o capítulo que traz esse conceito. Eu, por exemplo, perdi alguns conceitos que foram: o que é a localização das sensações percebidas no conceito de "ser-aí"; por qual motivo a narrativa do criador requer uma noção de tempo; dentre outras. Não estou exagerando quando digo que Heidegger escreve como um pedante. Mas pra não ficar só nos fechos, tem umas coisas que compreendi que gostei foi que ele percebeu que frequentemente a gente leva nossas vidas de modo automático, tornando tudo indistinto. Tipo, a gente adota funções pré-estabelecidas pela sociedade, pela família e pelos círculos sociais sem efetivamente refletir sobre elas. Ele analisa também sobre nossa tendência de permanecer no que ele denomina de "cotidiano", uma condição que frequentemente delimita as vivências humanas inautênticas das autênticas. A primeira implica um senso de si e da trajetória da vida moldado principalmente por influências externas, normas sociais, tradições e expectativas, resultando no que Heidegger rotula de "queda". Em suma, pra ele a gente nasce, somos enviados prum mundo que não criamos, tentamos compreendê-lo, mas nunca conseguimos porque alguma hora vamos morrer e essa é a única icognita, e meio que é isso que dá significado ao pensamento humano? Pisses me off...

[Eduardo Henrique Gusmão · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muito embora de difícil compreensão, o interessante é o encontro com Heidegger, estando este na situação de professor, ministrante de um curso de introdução à filosofia, logo preocupado com a obrigação de se fazer claro e compreensível na exposição de suas ideias. Mesmo assim, um livro difícil, para iniciados.

[عبدُالعزيز · Rating 5 out of 5]

ترجمة عظيمة

[Qutaiba · Rating 4 out of 5]

كيف لي الحصول عن هذا الكتاب كوني بأمس الحاجة له

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusing. Must we write in such complex language Martin?

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

In order to grasp the essence of human freedom - Heidegger confronts Kant and his notions of pure/transcendental freedom, practical freedom, objectivity, and in particular that of causality. This confrontation with Kant is done in the second part of the book, while in the first part Heidegger needs first to unveil Kant's understanding of Being. For this - Heidegger goes all the way back to how the Being of beings manifested to the Ancient Greeks.

Freedom is related with causality, this in turn to movement, and this again to beings and to the question “what are beings”. Aristotle was “the first and last” to inquire into the essence of movement and to ask “what are beings” – this question understood by Heidegger as the leading question of philosophy. In their daily activities, the Greeks experienced the Being of beings as “constant presence” or as “being-always-present”. Eventually, the modern understanding of Being as “substance” replaced the “constant presence” -- with substantiality understood as that which is preserved and remained constant through all changes of properties and any other transformations of any particular being. Our current understanding of Being as actuality (i.e., final producedness along with the Platonic look/idea -- as opposed to merely possibility) vaguely hints at the original “constant presence”; however the original “constant presence” still functions as the horizon for actuality, what-being, movement, and even truth – as it did for the Ancient Greeks.

For Heidegger, freedom is prior to the leading question of philosophy (i.e., “what are beings”) and also more primordial than man. For Kant, freedom was connected with causality (in the case of pure/transcendental reason) and with human dignity, personality, and morality (in the case of the practical reason). In the first case, causality makes possible all inner experiences - since “experience is possible only through the representation of a necessary connection of perceptions” and as a temporal succession of the objects. That is, the transcendental causal law allows us as humans to encounter any objects. The problem here and in Kant was that by extrapolating this causal law to humans, the underlying being-present of nature was additionally extrapolated to humans; thus human freedom turns into its opposite. Moreover, Kant gave priority to reason in this schema of causality instead of time. On the other hand, the “ought” of the practical reason hints at the proper concept of freedom concerning humans; but also at a totally different ontology. The first pure/critical way in Kant treated the possible freedom of a present being in general, while the second practical way treated the actual freedom of the human being understood as Dasein.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those lecture courses delivered by Heidegger that ended up as a complete, solid, and amazing book. His aim here is the expansion of some concepts from “Being and Time” and of introducing his philosophy to Freiburg University as Husserl's successor. The driving concepts are those of science and Weltanschauung/worldview in relation to philosophy; and of “getting philosophizing underway”. Several of his later and major themes briefly appear here.

Regarding science - Heidegger's main point is that philosophy is not science, should not be, and that philosophy is something more fundamental than any science. He denounces modern philosophy since Descartes in its new attempts and approaches to elevate itself to the rank of science (in the sense of mathematical certainty) or as an absolute science (like in Hegel). For Heidegger, philosophy must determine itself from itself, and in the process to also lay the foundations of new and old sciences. All this goes back to his famous statement that “science does not think” - in the sense that science cannot understand its own foundations or essences in any scientific ways (for example, the basic principle of mathematics are not in themselves mathematical; and the same for physics). The discussion concerning the essence of science will move into the essence of truth; and this eventually into Dasein and Being. The final conclusion of this section is that science is one of the ways of unconcealment of Dasein; that is, a "how of human existence". In other words, Heidegger arrives at an existential concept of science where the main issue is not that of valid statements, but that of the unconcealment of beings themselves and that of letting beings be what and how they are.

A lot of this book is a discussion and confrontation with Kant's “Critique of Pure Reason”. One can also notice here the main topics from the “Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics” book that will appear soon and as a continuation of “Being and Time”. Kant serves also as an introduction to the second topic – that of the Weltanschauung/worldview. According to Kant “world is the idea of the totality of created beings in the possible perspective of a knowing being that is for its part also created.” Heidegger does not like this definition of the world and opposes to it his concept of Dasein (understood as being-in-the-world) along with his concept of transcendence (understood as Dasein overstepping beings as a whole). Further, Heidegger takes the concept of “play” from Kant and applies it to his concept of Being. In a way, Heidegger here is following through to the end with his previous critique of Jasper's worldview and of any worldview in general.

[Mike T · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of the same. Everyone should be as free as humanly possible in order to really define their lives. I agree, problem is, he never really explains how to deal with that same interaction when conflict arises with another group. It's interesting but lacking. Going to give it more time and see if I look further into some other aspects of the argument if I can find a stronger foothold in my brain but as of right now it's really just another person arguing that everyone should be free to a point that doesn't realistically work.

[David Markwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always find Heidegger's thoughts on Nietzsche to be interesting. These two lectures on Nietzsche, thinking, and poetry are worth a read for anyone interested in Nietzsche, Heidegger, or metaphysics. If none of this is interesting to you this book will not be interesting for you. That is an exhaustive statement if ever there has been one.

[Leonardo]

Sobre el último Heidegger y su vínculo con Fascismo, citado y comentado en Visión de Paralaje Pág.422

[Joshua Yang]

freedom is a fact which is experienceable but the idea of freedom is not an empirical concept.

[Libia Fibilo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Paroliere per pseudo intellettuali che sforna pensieri semplici in una maniera talmente complicata in senso verbale da credersi profondo.

Allora per me è no, ciao.