Re: Introduction to Heidegger

On Tue, 1 Feb 2000, John Foster wrote:


> >What is a good introductory work into the philosophy >of Heidegger?
> 
> Try "Basic Concepts"; "Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit", "Poetry,
> Language, Thought", "Basic Writings", "What is Called Thinking", and
> "Rumour of A Hidden King: the young Heidegger".
> 
> "Basic Concepts"

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Um, fellas...

I think Travis is actually asking for a readable, *accessible*
introduction to Heidegger.  Clearly, this would not be anything written by
Heidegger himself.  Neither would it be one of the more densely technical
philosophical books on his theories.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Travis, but are you not looking for a book or
article that will give you a fairly easy, straightforward point of entry
into this man's almost tortuous use of an otherwise perfectly good
language?  For that I would suggest you try Charles Guignon's introductory
paper in _The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger_; Harrison Hall's
"Intentionality and World" in the same collection; John Haugeland's
"Dasein's Disclosedness" and William Blattner's "Existential Temporality
in <Being and Time>" both in _Heidegger: A Critical Reader_; F. W. Von
Herrmann's "<Being and Time> and <The Basic Problems of Phenomenology>" in
_Reading Heidegger_, edited by John Sallis; and finally a classic book on
Heidegger is Otto Poeggeler's _Martin Heidegger's Path of Thinking_.

At this early point, I would advise you to avoid the heavier stuff of
Heidegger's own books, but there are two very clear tidy things that he
wrote in his life.  First and foremost is his article "What Is
Metaphysics?" in _Basic Writings_.  Another decent source is his early
paper (now bound into a book so that gullible groupies will choke out more
$$dough$$ for copies of it) "The Concept of Time," which several others
suggested too.  It really is a pretty easy read, but it also leaves out a
*lot* of what gets developed in _Being and Time_.  If I were you, I'd just
go ahead and start with "What Is Metaphysics?", read some of the articles
I mentioned above until I got a reasonable notion of what was goin on, and
then I'd dig right into the Macqaurrie/Robinson translation of _Being and
Time_ (avoid Stambaugh's new trans.-- it's actually even clunkier than the
old translation).

Once you do reach a point where Heidegger's own writings make more sense
to you, do yourself a really big favor and go pick up a copy of his _Kant
and the Problem of Metaphysics_.  It's the best thing he ever wrote and it
is fantastic.  The debate with Cassirer is especially cool.  There you get
to actually read the entire debate and if you're careful you'll notice
Heidegger quite misconstrues some of Cassirer's most important claims.  
Naturally, Cassirer returns the favor.  It's a lovely read.

One last thing-- if the articles are still really frustrating for you,
there's a *VERY* basic introductory book called _Heidegger for
Beginners_.  Take that one with a big old grain of salt, though.


Good luck with it!

-David Schenk



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