Basic Questions of Philosophy: Selected "Problems" of "Logic" (Studies in Continental Thought) - Hardcover

Martin Heidegger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253326850 ISBN 13: 9780253326850

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1994

Synopsis

First published in German in 1984 as volume 45 of Martin Heidegger's collected works, this book is the first English translation of a lecture course he presented at the University of Freiburg in 1937–1938. Heidegger's task here is to reassert the question of the essence of truth, not as a "problem" or as a matter of "logic," but precisely as a genuine philosophical question, in fact the one basic question of philosophy. Thus, this course is about the essence of truth and the essence of philosophy. On both sides Heidegger draws extensively upon the ancient Greeks, on their understanding of truth as aletheia and their determination of the beginning of philosophy as the disposition of wonder. In addition, these lectures were presented at the time that Heidegger was composing his second magnum opus, Beiträge zur Philosophie, and provide the single best introduction to that complex and crucial text.

About this title

About the Author

Richard Rojcewicz is Executive Director of the Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center at Duquesne University.

André Schuwer is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Duquesne University and cotranslator (with Richard Rojcewicz) of Parmenides by Martin Heidegger and Ideas II by Edmund Husserl.

From the Back Cover

First published in German in 1984 as volume 45 of Martin Heidegger's collected works, this book translates a lecture course he presented at the University of Freiburg in 1937-1938. Heidegger here raises the question of the essence of truth, not as a ""problem"" or as a matter of ""logic,"" but precisely as a genuine philosophical question, in fact the one basic question of philosophy. Thus, this course is about the intertwining of the essence of truth and the essence of philosophy. On both sides Heidegger draws extensively upon the ancient Greeks, on their understanding of truth as aletheia and their determination of the beginning of philosophy as the disposition of wonder. In addition, these lectures were presented at the time that Heidegger was composing his second magnum opus, Beitrage zur Philosophie, and provide the single best introduction to that complex and crucial text.

Reviews

The concept of truth plays a vital role in Heidegger's thought, and Basic Questions, a lecture course that Heidegger gave in 1937-38, offers a helpful elucidation of truth as he sees it. Frequently, philosophers think of truth as statements that match reality: "the lights are on in the lecture hall" is true if the lights are in fact on there. For Heidegger, this seeming commonplace is absurd. Truth in his view is the openness or unconcealment of being, a position that he traces to the pre-Socratics. He deploys his immense learning to trace the eclipse of the pre-Socratic notion throughout the history of philosophy by the doctrine of truth as correspondence. This excellent translation will be of great value to students of Heidegger's thought.
David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0253326850
• ISBN 13: 9780253326850
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216