Introduction to Metaphysics (Heidegger book)

Introduction to Metaphysics (German: Einführung in die Metaphysik) is a revised and edited 1935 lecture course by Martin Heidegger first published in 1953. Heidegger suggested the work relates to the unwritten "second half" of his 1927 magnum opus Being and Time. The work is also notable for illustrating Heidegger's supposed "Kehre," or turn in thought beginning in the 1930s, a discussion of the Presocratics and for its mention of the "inner greatness" of Nazism.

Introduction to Metaphysics
AuthorMartin Heidegger
Original titleEinführung in die Metaphysik
Translators
  • 1959: Ralph Manheim
  • 2000: Gregory Fried and Richard Polt
CountryGermany
LanguageGertman
SubjectMetaphysics
Publisher
Publication date
1953
Published in English
  • 1959: (Manheim)
  • 2000 (Fried & Polt)
  • 2014 (Fried & Polt, revised and expanded ed.)
Preceded byKant and the Problem of Metaphysics 
Followed byContributions to Philosophy 

Background and publication history

See also: Being and Time

Introduction to Metaphysics, originally a summer lecture course at the University of Freiburg in 1935, was published eighteen years later by the Max Niemeyer Verlag (Halle, Germany), simultaneously with the Seventh German Edition of Being and Time.

In a one-page preface accompanying this post-war edition of Being and Time, Heidegger wrote that the newly available Introduction to Metaphysics, would "elucidate" material contemplated for the once-promised but long-abandoned "second half" of Being and Time. The preface also noted that the text of this latest B&T edition had eliminated several references to itself as a "first half." [1] [2]

The work is included in Volume 40 (1983) of Heidegger's Gesamtausgabe (collected works) edited by Petra Jaeger. Among English translations, the second edition (2014) of a version by Gregory Fried and Richard Polt from Yale Press (New Haven) was in print as of 2020. Ralph Manheim produced a 1959 translation praised by Fried and Polt in their acknowledgements as "largely responsible for introducing Heidegger to the English-speaking world." But Manheim worked prior to the 1962 Macquarrie version of Being and Time -- which established several conventions for Heidegger's English translators. [3] [4][5] [6]

Being and the 'Kehre'

Further information: Kehre

In a significant contrast with Being and Time eight years earlier, Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics "no longer places the inquiry into the Being of Dasein at the center of his work," Instead, Heidegger "looks to language as the site of a meaning of Being." according to Brian Bard's 1993 essay titled "Heidegger's Reading of Heraclitus." [7] Heidegger hoped this effort would help determine "the Being of Dasein," according to Bard.

Introduction to Metaphysics is typically seen as the first instance of Heidegger's much-discussed Kehre, or turn in thinking, that became evident from the 1930s onward, according to Thomas Sheehan. But Sheehan believes this supposed change is "far less dramatic than usually suggested," and merely entailed a change in focus and method. [8] Sheehan contends that Heidegger never tried to define "being" but rather "[that which] brings about being as a givenness of entities." [9] [10] Mark Wrathall argued (2011) that the Kehre is a misconception on the part of interpreters, while pointing to Heidegger's supposed consistency of purpose throughout his career. [11]

In part of this work, Heidegger says fundamental questions of metaphysics are "why are there beings at all instead of nothing?"[12] and "how does it stand with Being?"[13] Separately, in "Age of the World Picture" (a 1938 lecture), Heidegger wrote that metaphysics grounds an age by providing "the basis upon which it is essentially formed."[14] Questions of being are thus relevant to Dasein and asked in a manner aimed at restoring "the historical Dasein ... back to the power of Being that is to be opened up originally".[15]

Presocratic Revivalism
Further information: Heraclitus § Logos

Introduction to Metaphysics "was not about early Greek thought, and yet the Presocratics are at the pivotal center of discussion," writes W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz. In this view, "the thinking of Heraclitus and Parmenides, which lies at the origin of philosophy, was falsified and misinterpreted" by Plato and Aristotle, thus tainting all of subsequent Western philosophy.[16]

Heidegger aimed to correct this misunderstanding (Charles Guignon 2014) by reviving Presocratic notions of 'being' with an emphasis on "understanding the way beings show up in (and as) an unfolding happening or event." Guignon adds that "we might call this alternative outlook 'event ontology.'"[17] ( The concept of Ereignis, or "event," is more fully developed in Contributions to Philosophy 1938.) [18]

Heidegger used his discussion of Heraclitus' and Parmenides' respective notions of logos in his argument that to avoid nihilism, modern philosophy must "reinvert" the traditional, post-Socratic conception of the relationship between being and thinking, according to Daniel Dahlstrom.[19]

The psychologist/philosopher Miles Groth characterized "Heidegger's readings of Heraclitus and Parmenides" as "famously idiosyncratic" and labeled as "challenging" what Groth called Heidegger's suggestion that the two Presocratics "fundamentally agree." [20]

Politics
See also: Martin Heidegger and Nazism

Gregory Fried and Richard Polt praised the work for "the range and depth of its thought as well as for its intricate and nuanced style", arguing that it deserved its status as the successor to Being and Time. Regarding its mention of National Socialism, they write that, “Interpreters differ widely, and often acrimoniously, on whether Heidegger’s Nazism was due to a personal character defect” or whether the philosophy itself reflects a fascist outlook.[6]

Heidegger refers in the work to the "inner truth and greatness of the movement," but adds a qualifying statement in parentheses: "(namely, the confrontation of planetary technology and modern humanity)." The qualification wasn't in the original lecture, although Heidegger falsely claimed otherwise. Moreover, the controversial page of the 1935 manuscript is missing from the Heidegger Archives in Marbach.[21]

Heidegger defended the "inner greatness" comment in a 1966 interview with Der Spiegel (posthumously published 1976), claiming it was intended to mislead Nazi informants who observed his lectures. Heidegger asserted that dedicated students would understand that the comment wasn't a celebration of Nazism. [22]

Heidegger's former student Jurgen Habermas appeared highly critical of the "inner greatness" statement, writing in a 1953 review of the published work in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that "it's time to think with Heidegger against Heidegger."[23]

Although Julian Young claims (1998) that the book is "widely considered fascist in character," this characterization is false according to Young, who writes that the work implicitly condemns Nazism for its racism, militarism and attempted destruction of civil society.[24] The work has also been seen as being critical of Nazism for being insufficiently radical and suffering from the same spiritual impoverishment as the Soviet Union and the United States.[25]

References
  1. Being and Time, Author's Preface to the Seventh German Edition.
  2. See also, Emily J. Hughes' review of "Division III of Heidegger’s Being and Time. The Unanswered question of Being", in Phenomenological Review. Hughes writes that "As some of the essays in this collection note, Heidegger directs us to two quite different texts to help us better understand the (incomplete) project of Being and Time: the Basic Problems of Phenomenology and the Introduction to Metaphysics." https://doi.org/10.19079/pr.2016.5.hug
  3. Fried & Polt 2001, pp. xiv, xxiii.
  4. Heidegger 2014, p. iv.
  5. Fried & Polt 2001, pp. vii–xxvi.
  6. Fried & Polt 2001, pp. viii, xiv, xxiii.
  7. Brian Bard, 1993, essay, see section three https://sites.google.com/site/heideggerheraclitus/
  8. Thomas Sheehan, "Kehre and Ereignis, a proglenoma to Introduction to Metaphysics" in "A companion to Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics" page 15, 2001,
  9. ibid.
  10. see also, Sheehan, "Making sense of Heidegger. A paradigm shift." New Heidegger Research. London (England) 2015.
  11. Wrathall, Mark: Heidegger and Unconcealment: Truth, Language, and History, Cambridge University Press, 2011
  12. Heidegger 2014, p. 19.
  13. Heidegger 2014, pp. 43–44.
  14. Heidegger 1977, p. 115.
  15. Heidegger 2014, p. 44.
  16. 2016, W.Julian Korab-Karpowicz, "The Presocratics in the thought of Martin Heidegger" in Companion to Introduction to Metaphysics, page 58
  17. Guignon "Being as Appearing" in "A companion to Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics," page 36
  18. https://www.beyng.com
  19. Dahlstrom, "The Scattered Logos," in "A Companion to Heidegger's Introduction To Metaphysics" page 92
  20. Groth 2001, pp. 138–140.
  21. Habermas, Jürgen (1989). "Work and Weltanschauung: the Heidegger Controversy from a German Perspective". Critical Inquiry. 15 (2): 452–54. doi:10.1086/448492. See also J. Habermas, "Martin Heidegger: on the publication of the lectures of 1935", in Richard Wolin, ed., The Heidegger Controversy (MIT Press, 1993). The controversial page of the 1935 manuscript is missing from the Heidegger Archives in Marbach; however, Habermas's scholarship leaves little doubt about the original wording.
  22. McGrath, S. J., Heidegger: A (Very) Critical Introduction (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008), p. 92.
  23. Theodore Kisiel "Heidegger's Philosophical Geopolitics" "Companion to IM" page 239
  24. Young 1998, pp. 109, 117.
  25. Pégny et al. 2014.

Bibliography
Books
  • Fried, Gregory; Polt, Richard, eds. (2001). A Companion to Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08524-2.
  • Heidegger, Martin (2014). Introduction to Metaphysics, Second Edition. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-18612-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Heidegger, Martin (1977). The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-131969-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Young, Julian (1998). Heidegger, philosophy, Nazism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-64494-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Journals
Web sites
  • "Ereignis - Martin Heidegger in English" [1]


Online articles

Further reading
  1. https://www.beyng.com
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