Being and Time in Existentialism

Mar 04, 2015 Pooja Kashyap rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction, philosophy

Heidegger’s concept of time too is not limited to watch or calendar rather it is a kind of temporality that can be experienced in any single moment.

For instance, we use our tools without explicitly noticing them, like hammer. Our radar of focus is the thing we are building than tools or hammer we are using. Even if it (the hammer) breaks, it will remain more than what we are seeing, a broken tool. This implies, the being of hammer is always absent, even if it works underneath the entire building ...more

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Apr 13, 2024 Miles Trujillo rated it liked it

This book is, on the one hand, extremely bloated, and, on the other, extremely concise.

As far as its’ bloated element goes, it reads very much like an academic text written for the sake of tenure; the occasion of the text is very prominent. There are so many points where he repeats himself pointlessly, and many sections of the text feel like they were written to follow and flesh out a pre-planned outline; it felt like the content of the text had outgrown the need for the outline; it felt like t This book is, on the one hand, extremely bloated, and, on the other, extremely concise.

As far as its’ bloated element goes, it reads very much like an academic text written for the sake of tenure; the occasion of the text is very prominent. There are so many points where he repeats himself pointlessly, and many sections of the text feel like they were written to follow and flesh out a pre-planned outline; it felt like the content of the text had outgrown the need for the outline; it felt like the structure of the text was overly involved; there were simply many, many sections he could have easily deleted, and the book would have been no worse the wear.

As far as its conciseness goes, it reads very much as the definitive summary of the conclusions of 19th century German philosophy. Heidegger masterfully links the ontological questions broached by Hegel and the early German idealists after Kant with the existential, moral questions surrounding subjectivity broached by the likes of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. That previous century’s work had already moved beyond the foundationalism of Descartes, which is fully worked out by Kant. However, no one in the 19th century can give a clearer summation than Heidegger does here of the failures of this modernist turn in philosophy.

Those sections are fundamental for an understanding of the development of western philosophy’s central conversation.

It’s also worth pointing out that Heidegger is a master of philosophical work which primarily summarizes the work of thinkers before him, and systematizes previous advances. This type of work is, in and of itself, creative. In the work of systematization, the implications of previous thinkers is made bare in ways that would have surprised those same thinkers. Thus, it is often that summarizing other’s work in and of itself leads to the development and negation of that line of thinking. This is the best example of that kind of work.

This work has clearly significant advances, but it is simultaneously very contained.

Finally, this work is compelling because of how basic its presuppositions feel to any adherent of modern philosophy. Its explanations of subject and object feel obvious to anyone who has advanced beyond Kant. Yet, one must read Losurdo’s text about Heidegger and the ideology of war along with this text. It reveals that Heidegger’s specific delineation of these post-Kantian implications are inseparable from Heidegger’s enthusiastic adoption of Nazism and the kriegsideologie. That in and of itself should be enough to lead anyone to a significant attempt at self-critique and inspection.

Now, however, that I’ve finished this stupid ass book, I’m gonna play some call of duty. Seeing as America has adopted the fascist mantle after the Second World War, it is only just that I pay homage to Heidegger by playing a video game which is essentially American, fascist propaganda. ...more

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Feb 27, 2014 Steven Fowler rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, heidegger

The translation is the same as the original M&R hardback of 1962 but with a new forward by noted Heidegger scholar, Taylor Carman, added in 2008. Although short, this 21st century forward adds to the work by giving first-time readers a quick overview of some of the difficulties in reading Heidegger's Being and Time (in any language) and some of the hot-button words to be mindful of while reading it as well as setting the book within the historical scope of Heidegger's personal biography and rela ...more

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Mar 02, 2014 Steven Fowler rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, heidegger

Although touted as the new definitive translation I think Stambaugh's translation falls short of that mark. In spite of some glaring flaws, the definitive translation remains the M&R translation from 1962. Although Stambaugh does effectively eliminate some errors in that translation she introduces a host of others in her attempt to render Heidegger's German and neologisms into contemporary American English. This might have the effect of making it more accessible for first-time readers but it als ...more

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