Contemporary Philosophy

Martin Heidegger
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Martin Heidegger Western Philosophy
20th-century philosophy
Full name Martin Heidegger
Birth 26 September 1889
Meßkirch, Germany
Death 26 May 1976 (aged 86)
Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
School/tradition Phenomenology · Hermeneutics · Existentialism · Deconstruction
Main interests Ontology · Metaphysics · Art · Greek philosophy · Technology · Language · Poetry · Thinking
Notable ideas Dasein · Gestell · Heideggerian terminology
Influenced by[show]
Anaximander · Parmenides · Heraclitus · Plato · Aristotle · Duns Scotus · Kant · Hölderlin · Schelling · Hegel · Kierkegaard · Nietzsche · Dilthey · Brentano · Husserl · Rilke · Trakl · Jünger
Influenced[show]
Strauss · Sartre · Kuki · Merleau-Ponty · Gadamer · Arendt · Marcuse · Foucault · Nancy · Ricoeur · Derrida · Agamben · Vattimo · Borgmann · Stiegler · Lacan · Benoist
Martin Heidegger (26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) (pronounced [ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪ̯dɛgɐ]) was an influential German philosopher. His best known book, Being and Time, is generally considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th century. Heidegger's work remains controversial due to his involvement with National Socialism.

Introduction
Heidegger claimed that Western philosophy has, since Plato, misunderstood what it means for something "to be," tending to approach this question in terms of a being, rather than asking about being itself. In other words, Heidegger believed all investigations of being have historically focused on particular entities and their properties, or have treated being itself as an entity, or substance, with properties. A more authentic analysis of being would, for Heidegger, investigate "that on the basis of which beings are already understood," or that which underlies all particular entities and allows them to show up as entities in the first place.[1] But since philosophers and scientists have overlooked the more basic, pre-theoretical ways of being from which their theories derive, and since they have incorrectly applied those theories universally, they have confused our understanding of being and human existence. To avoid these deep-rooted misconceptions, Heidegger believed philosophical inquiry must be conducted in a new way, through a process of retracing the steps of the history of philosophy.

Heidegger argued that this misunderstanding, commencing from Plato, has left its traces in every stage of Western thought. All that we understand, from the way we speak to our notions of "common sense," is susceptible to error, to fundamental mistakes about the nature of being. These mistakes filter into the terms through which being is articulated in the history of philosophy—reality, logic, God, consciousness, presence, et cetera. In his later philosophy, Heidegger argues that this profoundly affects the way in which human beings relate to modern technology.

Heidegger's work has strongly influenced philosophy, theology and the humanities. Within philosophy it played a crucial role in the development of existentialism, hermeneutics, deconstruction, postmodernism, and continental philosophy in general. Major philosophers such as Karl Jaspers, Leo Strauss, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jean-Paul Sartre, Emmanuel Lévinas, Hannah Arendt, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, and Jacques Derrida have all analyzed Heidegger's work.

Heidegger infamously supported National Socialism and was a member of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) from May 1933 until May 1945[2]. His defenders, notably Hannah Arendt, see this support as arguably a personal " 'error' " (a word which Arendt placed in quotation marks when referring to Heidegger's Nazi-era politics.)[3] Defenders think this error was largely irrelevant to Heidegger's philosophy. Critics, such as his former students Emmanuel Lévinas[4] and Karl Löwith[5], hold that Heidegger's support for National Socialism was immoral and revealed flaws inherent in his thought.


[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

The Mesmerhaus in Meßkirch, where Heidegger grew up.Heidegger was born in rural Meßkirch, Germany. Raised a Roman Catholic, he was the son of the sexton of the village church. His family could not afford to send him to university, so he entered a Jesuit seminary. After studying theology at the University of Freiburg from 1909 to 1911, he switched to philosophy. Heidegger completed his doctoral thesis on psychologism in 1914, and in 1916 finished his venia legendi with a thesis on Duns Scotus.[6] In the two years following, he worked first as an unsalaried Privatdozent, then served as a soldier during the final year of World War I, working behind a desk and never leaving Germany. After the war, he served as a salaried senior assistant to Edmund Husserl at the University of Freiburg until 1923.


[edit] Marburg years
In 1923, Heidegger was elected to an extraordinary Professorship in Philosophy at the University of Marburg. His colleagues there included Rudolf Bultmann, Ernst Friedländer, Nicolai Hartmann, and Paul Natorp. Heidegger's students at Marburg included Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Gerhard Krüger, Leo Strauss, Gunther (Stern) Anders, and Hans Jonas.


[edit] Freiburg years
When Husserl retired in 1928, Heidegger accepted Freiburg's election to be his successor, in spite of a counter-offer by Marburg. Heidegger remained at Freiburg for the rest of his life, declining a number of later offers including one from Berlin, the most prestigious German university of the day. Among his students at Freiburg were Herbert Marcuse and Ernst Nolte. Emmanuel Levinas attended his lecture courses during his stay in Freiburg in 1928.


[edit] Engagement with National Socialism
In late 1932 Heidegger stood for election as Rector of the University of Freiburg. He took office on April 21, 1933, joining the Nazi party on May 1, 1933[7]. Heidegger's inaugural address, the Rektoratsrede, and other proclamations during this period are notorious for their endorsements of Nazism. In a November 1933 article in the Freiburg student newspaper, Heidegger wrote:

The German people must choose its future, and this future is bound to the Fuhrer...There is only one will to the full existence (Dasein) of the State. The Fuhrer has awakened this will in the entire people[8].

Heidegger resigned his position on April 23, 1934 after his superiors in the German Education Ministry did not answer his telegrams [9] and the faculty opposed his innovations, which included compulsory hiking for students and a reduction in lecture time. A more detailed account of the personal and philosophical relations between Heidegger and National Socialism is given below.


[edit] Postwar years
After leaving the Nazi Party in May 1945, Heidegger did not again participate in any other political organizations. However, he never repudiated his prior statements praising Hitler and National Socialism. Citing his Nazi ties during the years 1933 to 1945, the French Occupation Authority ruled that Heidegger had been a "fellow traveller" with the Nazis and banned him from teaching in Germany. Authorities later rescinded this decision in 1951, when Heidegger became Professor emeritus with all privileges. He then taught regularly from 1951 until 1958, and by invitation until 1967.