MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889-1976)

1916--University of Freiburg.  Second doctorate on Duns Scotus.  Scotus= theory of Being has instructive similarities with Heidegger=s.

1923--Professor at Marburg.  Profound Influence on Rudolf Bultmann and dialectical theologyC@existentialist@ Christianity.

1927--published first two parts of Being and Time.  Dedicated to Edmund Husserl.

1929--appointed to Husserl=s chair at Freiburg.

1933--First Nazi rector of the University of Freiburg.  Paid his dues to the Nazi=s party until 1945.

1934--Resigned his rectorship.  Nazi=s view him with disfavor, but he continues his rabid nationalism and speaks out (as late as 1974) against democracy.

1935--The Aturn@ in Heidegger=s thought from early existentialist period to later Amystical@ period.

1935--Introduction to Metaphysics.  Greek and German the only truly philosophical languages!

1945--Forced into retirement by occupation authorities.

Heidegger did not waver between AChristian transcendence and nihilism,@ as Gill and Sherman say.

                                     HEIDEGGER'S FUNDAMENTAL ONTOLOGY

(ontos=being; and logos=understanding or study of)

What is Being (Sein) as opposed to beings, entities (Seiendes)?

It is not God (as in Marcel) or even the ground of beings (as in Paul Tillich).  It is not a thing or collection of things.  At least for early period, the best interpretation is a Kantian one:  Being is the condition for the possibility of the existence and experience of any entity whatever.  "Heidegger adapted the 'transcendental' perspective of Kant and the kindred phenomenology of Husserl, and thus intended 'ground' to refer to the alleged, overall 'field'  or 'context' within which every single entity occurs (Gill and Sherman, p. 416).

Some examples of being or being existent:

1.The pen is, or the pen is an existent.  The IS of Existence.

2.The pen is a piece of plastic.  The IS of Essence.

3.The pen I'm holding is the pen you're looking at.  The IS of Identity.

4.The pen is white and blue.  The IS of Predication.

5.The pen is made of plastic.  The IS of Composition.

The IS of Existence is the Being that Heidegger is talking about.

"To exist is to be perceivable" (Berkeley's idealism); "To exist is to be in space and time" (scientific materialism).  But idealsim and materialism both beg the Question of Being.  What is it to be perceivable or what is it to be in space and time?

One cannot answer the Question of Being by answering in terms of beings or entities (minds, matter, etc.).  This is second order ontology rather than first order or  fundamental ontology.

Entities exist or do not exist.  Being will be the necessary ground or conditions for existence.  Sein west (Being essences itself), but things exist.  For Heidegger God does exist, but God is an entity not Being itself.  He disagrees with Marcel and Tillich on this critical matter.

Heidegger's early work is not "Fascist," but later work is another question.  In 1935, for example, he claimed that German and Greek are the only truly philosophical languages.  He also made some very nationalistic, antidemocratic comments in the same book.

The "Fate" of Being controls history?  Our language (the "House of Being") gives us our destiny as people and a nation?  Primordial speech speaks through us, and we are destined to speak and live within its confines.  Hitler spoke the destiny of Being?

                        HEIDEGGER'S CRITIQUE OF ARISTOTLE'S CATEGORIES

What is Socrates?  What is his Being?

1.Substance - his form ("humanity") and his "matter" (flesh, blood and guts).

2.Quality - snubnosed, old, pale, etc.

3.Quantity - 5'10", 170 lbs.

4.Place - Athens, Greece, in prison

5.Relation - next to his disciples, far from  Delphi.

6.Action  - actively talking to his disciples. 

7. Passion - sitting waiting for the hemlock to come

8. Time- 4 p.m. Hellenic Standard Time

9. Position - sitting

10.Condition or state:  clothed, barefoot

 Aristotle's categories make everything, including human beings, into simple things, things Heidegger's calls the  present-to-hand.  The uniqueness of Dasein's being-in-the-world is missed.

                                                        Heidegger=s Existentials

                                                    (replacing the traditional categories

                                                    of Quantity, Quality, Substance ...)

                                           Specific and Unique modes of human Existenz

                                                          Being-in (Existential Space)

                                                                      Being-with

                                            Being-in-the-World (historical-cultural world)

                                                             Being-towards-death
 

            discourse                                          understanding                                states-of-mind

               logos Care

         speaking logic                                                                                                Angst

            language                                                                                                     hope

                                                                                                                             joy, etc.

AThe [ontological] essence of Dasein lies in Existenz.@

un[überhol]barC@unovertakability@ of own=s own death (egenlich); from egenCto own; one=s Aownmost@ possibility.

EgenlichkeitCAuthenticity

vs.

UnegenlichkeitCInauthenticity

These are modes of Dasen=s Being also.

Solomon:  109:  Heidegger on Death

Death removes the "Da" from Da-sein.  Death is Dasein "own most" (most authentic) possibility.  It's the single most important focus of our future.  It's unüberholdbar (unsurpassable, lit. nonovertakable). 

110:  The temporal mode of authentic Dasein is the future.  Everyday Dasein views death as actual (viz. someone else's death) not as our own most possibility.  Death becomes an object present-to-hand that we then fear unnecessarily.  The proper "emotion" vis-a-vis death is Angst not fear.  Angst then leads to courage in the face of death (112).