The Genesis of Heidegger's Being and Time / Edition 1

by Theodore Kisiel

Overview

This book, ten years in the making, is the first factual and conceptual history of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1927), a key twentieth-century text whose background until now has been conspicuously absent. Through painstaking investigation of European archives and private correspondence, Theodore Kisiel provides an unbroken account of the philosopher's early development and progress toward his masterwork.

Beginning with Heidegger's 1915 dissertation, Kisiel explores the philosopher's religious conversion during the bleak war years, the hermeneutic breakthrough in the war-emergency semester of 1919, the evolution of attitudes toward his phenomenological mentor, Edmund Husserl, and the shifting orientations of the three drafts of Being and Time. Discussing Heidegger's little-known reading of Aristotle, as well as his last-minute turn to Kant and to existentialist terminology, Kisiel offers a wealth of narrative detail and documentary evidence that will be an invaluable factual resource for years to come.

A major event for philosophers and Heidegger specialists, the publication of Kisiel's book allows us to jettison the stale view of Being and Time as a great book "frozen in time" and instead to appreciate the erratic starts, finite high points, and tentative conclusions of what remains a challenging philosophical "path."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520201590
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/24/1995
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Theodore Kisiel is Professor of Philosophy at Northern Illinois University and translator of Martin Heidegger's History of the Concept of Time.

Table of Contents

FIGURES
KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS AND NOTATIONS
INTRODUCTION

PART I • THE BREAKTHROUGH TO THE TOPIC

1. Phenomenological Beginnings: The Hermeneutic Breakthrough
(1915-19)
Harbingers in the Habilitation
KNS 1919: The Idea of Philosophy and the Problem of Worldviews
SS 1919: Phenomenology and Transcendental Value-Philosophy
SS 1919: On the Essence of the University and Academic Studies

2. Theo-Logical Beginnings: Toward a Phenomenology of
Christianity
The Religious-Philosophical Itinerary (1915-22)
Religious Experience as a Phenomenological Paradigm (1917-19)
The Philosophical Foundations of Medieval Mysticism (August 1919)
Summary: A Religious Phenomenology?

3. The Deconstruction of Life (1919-20)
WS 1919-20: Basic Problems of Phenomenology
SS 1920: Phenomenology of Intuition and Expression: Theory of
Philosophical Concept Formation
"Critical Comments on Karl Jaspers's P.1ychology of Worldviews"

4. The Religion Courses (1920-21)
WS 1920-21: Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion
SS 1921: Augustine and Neoplatonism
Conclusion: Two Religion Courses

PART II • CONFRONTING THE ONTOLOGICAL TRADITION

5. What Did Heidegger Find in Aristotle? (1921-23)
SS 1921: Phenomenological Practicum "Relating to" Aristotle's De Anima
WS 1921-22: Phenomenological Interpretations to Aristotle: Introduction to
Phenomenological Research: Einleitung
SS 1922: Phenomenological Interpretations to Aristotle: Ontology and Logic
October 1922: The Einleitung to a Book on Aristotle
WS 1922-23: Seminar: "Phenomenological Interpretations to Aristotle"
SS 1923: Ontology: Hermeneutics of Facticity

6. Aristotle Again: From Unconcealment to Presence (1923-24)
WS 1923-24: Introduction to Phenomenological Research
"Being-here and Being-true" (1923-24; December 1924)
SS 1924: Ground Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy
WS 1924-25: Interpretation of Platonic Dialogues

PART III • THREE DRAFTS OF BEING AND TIME

7. The Dilthey Draft: "The Concept of Time" (1924)
"The Concept of Time" U uly 1924)
"The Concept of Time" (November 1924)
The Kassel Lectures (April 1925)

8. The Ontoeroteric Draft: History of the Concept of
Time (1925)
SS 1925: History of the Concept of Time
WS 1925-26: Logic (Aristotle) [The Question of Truth]

9. The Final Draft: Toward a Kairology of Being
Ontic Ontology
The Primacy of Possibility
Horizonal Schematizing: The Story Goes On

EROTETIC EPILOGUE 4

Appendixes*
B. Heideggers Lehrveranstaltungen I Heidegger's Teaching Activities,
1915-30
C. A Documentary Chronology of the Path to the Publication of Being and
Time, 1924-27
D. Genealogical Glossary of Heidegger's Basic Terms, 1915-27

NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX OF NAMES
INDEX OF SUBJECT MATTER
INDEX OF GREEK TERMS
INDEX OF LATIN TERMS
* Note that there is no Appendix A. See Introduction for explanation.

Editorial Reviews

Martin Heidegger's Being and Time holds unchallenged rank as the most influential work of 20-century Continental philosophy. But its complexities baffle many readers. Kisiel (philosophy, Northern Illinois Univ.) argues that the key to understanding Being and Time lies in a detailed account of the book's origins. Accordingly, he analyzes Heidegger's dissertation, university classes, and preliminary drafts of Being and Time . Heidegger continually struggled with the project of his teacher Husserl to make philosophy a strict science. In these efforts, he made detailed studies of the New Testament and Aristotle. Under the influence of Kant, he claimed in Being and Time to establish philosophy as a strict science, a view he soon abandoned. Kisiel's work will prove indispensable to scholars and students of Heidegger. Recommended for academic libraries.-- David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., Ohio

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