The philosopher presents a stimulating overview of his work, its intellectual roots, and its relationship to the work of other twentieth century thinkers.
In Four Seminars, Heidegger reviews the entire trajectory of his thought and offers unique perspectives on fundamental aspects of his work. First published in French in 1976, these seminars were translated into German with Heidegger's approval and reissued in 1986 as part of his Gesamtausgabe, volume 15. Topics considered include the Greek understanding of presence, the ontological difference, the notion of system in German Idealism, the power of naming, the problem of technology, danger, and the event.
Heidegger's engagements with his philosophical forebears—Parmenides, Heraclitus, Kant, and Hegel—continue in surprising dialogues with his contemporaries—Husserl, Marx, and Wittgenstein. While providing important insights into how Heidegger conducted his lectures, these seminars show him in his maturity, reflecting back on his philosophical path.
Industry Reviews
This highly influential collection of four seminars conducted between 1966 and 1973 was first published in French transcription in 1976, the year Heidegger died. Their influence on French philosophy and thinking during the late 1970s and 1980s cannot be exaggerated, for, at the moment when the work of Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze, and others was first coming to prominence, it now had access to Heidegger's clearest articulations of his later thinking. Much of deconstruction and poststructuralist thought bears the formative imprint of these seminars. Heidegger himself oversaw their German translation (published in 1977 and again in 1986, in a collected edition), from which this long-awaited English translation by Mitchell and Raffoul has been made. Their brilliant translation will prove indispensable for theory and criticism in English. Heidegger breathes new life into the ancient Greek meaning of presencing, which is the keynote of his call for the abandonment of all modern realisms, idealisms, and materialisms and for a return to an experience of consciousness that sees itself as part of phenomenal presencing, rather than as something separate and detached from the world. On Kant, Marx, and the meaning of technology, these seminars contain some of Heidegger's most thoughtful insights and arguments. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower-level undergraduates through faculty.
