Commentary

[in chronological order]

Understanding Heidegger on Technology by Mark Blitz

- Blitz, Mark, "Understanding Heidegger on Technology," The New Atlantis, Winter: 2014.
Excerpt: Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) was perhaps the most divisive philosopher of the twentieth century. Many hold him to be the most original and important thinker of his era. Others spurn him as an obscurantist and a charlatan, while still others see his… More

The Place of Prejudice

- Sandel, Adam. The Place of Prejudice: A Case for Reasoning Within the World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014.
Today we associate prejudice with ignorance and bigotry and consider it a source of injustice. So how can prejudice have a legitimate place in moral and political judgment? In this ambitious work, Adam Sandel shows that prejudice, properly understood, is not… More

The Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Heidegger and Being and Time

- Mulhall, Stephen. The Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Heidegger and Being and Time. London: Routledge, 2013.
Synopsis: The Routledge Guidebook to Heidegger’s Being and Time explores: 1)The context of Heidegger’s work and the background to his writing; 2) Each separate part of the text in relation to its goals, meanings and impact; 3) The reception the book… More

Natural Reich

- Blitz, Mark. "Natural Reich." The Weekly Standard, February 8, 2010.
A review of Heidegger: The Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy in Light of the Unpublished Seminars of 1933-1935 by Emmauel Faye, translated by Michael B. Smith. Yale University Press, 2009. “This book, which appeared in 2005 in France and is… More

Heidegger: The Man and the Thinker

- Sheehan, Thomas ed. Heidegger: The Man and the Thinker. Chicago: Transaction, 2009.
Synopsis: Many people consider Martin Heidegger the most important German philosopher of the twentieth century. He is indisputably controversial and influential. Athough much has been written about Heidegger, this may be the best single volume covering his… More

Philosophical Hermeneutics

- Gadamer, Hans-Georg, and David Edward Linge. Philosophical Hermeneutics. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008.
Synopsis: This excellent collection contains 13 essays from Gadamer’s Kleine Schriften, dealing with hermeneutical reflection, phenomenology, existential philosophy, and philosophical hermeneutics. Gadamer applies hermeneutical analysis to Heidegger… More

Heidegger’s Analytic: Interpretation, Discourse, and Authenticity in Being and Time

- Carmen, Taylor. Heidegger’s Analytic: Interpretation, Discourse, and Authenticity in Being and Time. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Synopsis: Unlike those who view Heidegger as an idealist, Taylor Carman asserts that Heidegger is best understood as a realist and offers a new interpretation of his major work, Being and Time. Among the book’s distinctive features are an interpretation… More

The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger Edited by Charles Guignon

-  Guignon, Charles B. Editor. The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
This volume contains introductory essays by leading Heidegger scholars on various aspects of his life and thought, including his most important work, Being and Time. In addition there are discussions of Heidegger’s thought in relation to mysticism,… More

“The Principle of Phenomenology”

- Carmen, Taylor. “The Principle of Phenomenology.” In The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
In this essay, Taylor Carmen examines the role of phenomenology in Heidegger’s thought and Heidegger’s relationship to the founder of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl.

Heidegger’s Being and Time: Critical Essays

- Polt, Richard ed. Heidegger’s Being and Time: Critical Essays. Lanhham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
Synopsis: Heidegger’s Being and Time: Critical Essays provides a variety of recent studies of Heidegger’s most important work. Twelve prominent scholars, representing diverse nationalities, generations, and interpretive approaches deal with… More
View More Commentary »

Major Works

The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays

- Heidegger, Martin, and William Lovitt. The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays. New York :: HarperCollins Publishers, 2013.
The advent of machine technology has given rise to some of the deepest problems of modern thought. This newly packaged collection featuring Martin Heidegger’s celebrated essay “The Question Concerning Technology,” is an essential landmark in… More

Phenomenological Interpretations of Aristotle

- Heidegger, Martin. Phenomenological Interpretations of Aristotle : Initiation into Phenomenological Research. Translated by Richard Rojcewicz. Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Press, 2009.
Excerpt: The following investigations, however, are not aimed at putting in train a philosophical rehabilitation and defense of Aristotle, nor is their goal to renew Aristotle by paving the way for an Aristotelianism interwoven with the results of modern… More

Basic Writings: Martin Heidegger

- Heidegger, Martin. Basic Writings: Martin Heidegger. Edited by David Farrell Krell. London: Routledge, 2010.    
Basic Writings: Martin Heidegger offers a full range of this profound and controversial thinker’s writings in one volume, including: • The introduction to Being and Time • The Origin of the Work of Art • What Is Metaphysics? • Letter on Humanism… More

Plato’s Sophist

- Heidegger, Martin, Richard Rojcewicz and Andre Schuwer. Plato's Sophist. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2003.
Synopsis: This volume reconstructs Martin Heidegger’s lecture course at the University of Marburg in the winter semester of 1924-25, which was devoted to an interpretation of Plato and Aristotle. Published for the first time in German in 1992 as volume… More

Poetry, Language, Thought

- Heidegger, Martin. Poetry, Language, Thought. Translated by Albert Hofstadter. New York: Perennical Classics, 2001.
Excerpt: Origin here means that from and by which something is what it is and as it is. What something is, as it is, we call its essence or nature. The origin of something is the source of its nature. The question concerning the origin of the work of art… More

An Introduction to Metaphysics

- Heidegger, Martin. Introduction to Metaphysics. Translated by Gregory Fried and Richard Polt. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
First published in 1959, An Introduction to Metaphysics was the first book-length work by Heidegger to be published in English, preceding the English translation of Being and Time by three years. It contains the text of a series of classroom lectures by… More

On Time and Being

- Heidegger, Martin and J. Strambaugh. On Time and Being. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
Synopsis: On Time and Being charts the so-called “turn” in Martin Heidegger’s philosophy away from his earlier metaphysics in Being and Time to his later thoughts after “the end of philosophy.” The title lecture, “Time… More

What Is Called Thinking?

- Heidegger, Martin, and J. Glenn Gray. What Is Called Thinking? New York: Harper & Row, 1976.
What Is Called Thinking contains a course of university lectures Heidegger delivered in 1951 and 1952 at the University of Freiburg. They were the last before his formal retirement from the university and also the first lectures he was permitted to give… More

Being and Time

- Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Translated by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. Norwich: S.C.M. Press, 1962.
Excerpt: “[…] ‘For manifestly you have long been aware of what you mean when you use the expression “being”. We, however, who used to think we understood it, have now become perplexed.’ Do we in our time have an answer to… More

Multimedia

Toward a direct confrontation with political phenomena

- Mark Blitz, "Reason, Politics, and Human Nature," Conversations with Bill Kristol, April 24, 2021.
In this episode of Conversations with Bill Kristol, the great Heidegger scholar Mark Blitz draws on Heideggerian (and Platonic) insights to articulate a method for the study of political things.

Political Philosophy and the Ontological Question

- Professor Richard Velkley, author of Heidegger, Strauss and the Premises of Philosophy, speaking at Catholic University in 2012.
Professor Velkley addresses the question, “What place does thinking about politics have in Heidegger’s philosophy?”  

Heidegger on Technology

- Professor Jerry Weinberger on the theme of "Heidegger's legacy, technology and democratic politics."
Kenyon College, 1994. Duration: 1hr 50min  

Hubert Dreyfus on Heidegger’s philosophy

- Interview with Professor Dreyfus on the basic tenets of Heidegger's philosophy
Professor Hubert Dreyfus summarizes Edmund Husserl’s thought before covering Heidegger’s thought in greater detail. Each of the five parts is approximately ten minutes.

Heidegger Interviewed on TV by Buddhist Monk

- Heidegger on television in 1962 speaking briefly on the difficulty of thinking, technology, religion, and politics.
If you have any problems seeing the subtitles, click on the Closed Caption button at the bottom of each video.

Other Works

The Event

- Heidegger, Martin. The Event. Translated by Richard Rojcewicz. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2013.
Summary: Martin Heidegger’s The Event offers his most substantial self-critique of his Contributions to Philosophy: Of the Event and articulates what he means by the event itself. Richard Rojcewicz’s elegant translation offers the English-speaking reader… More

Basic Problems of Phenomenology: Winter Semester 1919/1920

- Heidegger, Martin. Basic Problems of Phenomenology (Winter Semester 1919/1920). Translated by Scott M. Campbell. New York: Bloomsbury, 2012.
Synopsis: Basic Problems of Phenomenology presents the first English translation of Martin Heidegger’s early lecture course from the Winter of 1919/1920, in which he attempts to clarify phenomenology by looking at the phenomenon of life, which he sees… More

Bremen and Freiburg Lectures: Insight Into That Which Is and Basic Principles of Thinking

- Heidegger, Martin. Bremen and Freiburg Lectures : Insight into That Which Is, and Basic Principles of Thinking. Translated by Andrew J. Mitchell. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012.
Synopsis: This volume consists of two lecture series given by Heidegger in the 1940s and 1950s. The lectures given in Bremen constitute the first public lectures Heidegger delivered when he was officially banned from teaching after World War II. Here,… More

Contributions to Philosophy (of the Event)

- Heidegger, Martin. Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event). Translated by Richard Rojcewicz and Daniela Neu. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012.
Synopsis: Martin Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy reflects his famous philosophical “turning.” In this work, Heidegger returns to the question of being from its inception in Being and Time to a new questioning of being as event. Heidegger… More

The Concept of Time

- Heidegger, Martin. The Concept of Time. Translated by Ingo Farin. London New York: Continuum, 2011.
The Concept of Time presents Heidegger’s so-called Dilthey review, widely considered the first draft of his celebrated masterpiece, Being and Time. Here Heidegger reveals his deep commitment to Wilhelm Dilthey and Count Yorck von Wartenburg. He agrees… More

Country Path Conversations

- Heidegger, Martin. Country Path Conversations. Translated by Bret W. Davis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.
Summary: First published in German in 1995, volume 77 of Heidegger’s Complete Works consists of three imaginary conversations written as World War II was coming to an end. Composed at a crucial moment in history and in Heidegger’s own thinking, these… More

Being and Truth

- Heidegger, Martin. Being and Truth. Translated by Gregory Fried, and Richard F. Polt. Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Press, 2010.
Synopsis: In these lectures, delivered in 1933-1934 while he was Rector of the University of Freiburg and an active supporter of the National Socialist regime, Martin Heidegger addresses the history of metaphysics and the notion of truth from Heraclitus to… More

Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy

- Heidegger, Martin. Basic Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy. Translated by Robert D. Metcalf and Mark B. Tanzer. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009.
Synopsis: Volume 18 of Martin Heidegger’s collected works presents his important 1924 Marburg lectures which anticipate much of the revolutionary thinking that he subsequently articulated in Being and Time. Here are the seeds of the ideas that would… More

Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy

- Heidegger, Martin. Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy. Translated by Richard Rojcewicz. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.
Synopsis: Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy presents a lecture course given by Martin Heidegger in 1926 at the University of Marburg. First published in German as volume 22 of the collected works, the book provides Heidegger’s most systematic history… More

The Essence of Human Freedom

- Heidegger, Martin. The Essence of Human Freedom : An Introduction to Philosophy. Translated by Ted Sadler. London, New York: Continuum, 2005.
Review from Library Journal: Over the past decade, an abundant number of Heidegger’s writings have been translated into English. Key among them are the lectures he delivered both prior to and following the writing of his magnum opus, Being and Time,… More
View More Other Works »