Heidegger: Thought and Historicity - Softcover

Fynsk, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801481589 ISBN 13: 9780801481581

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 1994

Synopsis

Christopher Fynsk here offers a sustained critical reading of texts written by Martin Heidegger in the period 1927-1947. His guiding concerns are Heidegger's notions of human finitude and difference, which he first addresses through an analysis of the role played by Mitsein in Being and Time. This analysis in turn affords a critical perspective on Heidegger's own interpretive encounters with Nietzsche and Hölderlin.

In a reading of Heidegger's Nietzsche, Fynsk points to a far more ambivalent interpretation than the one commonly attributed to Heidegger. After further elaboration of the problematic of finitude in the context of Heidegger's writings of the 1930s on politics and art, Fynsk looks closely at Heidegger's commentary on Hölderlin. He calls into question Heidegger's claims for the gathering and founding character of poetry, and seeks to raise some basic questions in respect to the nature of the text and the act of interpretation.

Presenting a critical confrontation with Heidegger that places itself within what Fynsk refers to as a contemporary "thought of difference," this book should be of interest not only to all students of Heidegger but also to anyone concerned with contemporary literary theory or modern Continental philosophy.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Christopher Fynsk offers a sustained critical reading of works written by Martin Heidegger in the period 1927-1947. His guiding concerns are Heidegger's notions of human finitude and difference, which Fynsk first addresses through an analysis of the role played by Mitsein in Being and Time. This analysis in turn affords a critical perspective on Heidegger's own interpretive encounters with Nietzsche and Holderlin. For the paperback, Fynsk has added a new chapter on the recent controversy surrounding Heidegger's politics. Polemical in style, it seeks to define what is at stake in "the Heidegger affair" and points to some of the questions for philosophy and politics raised by the new legibility of Heidegger's political engagements.

About the Author:

Christopher Fynsk, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Binghamton, is serving as Maître de Conferences Associé in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Strasbourg for the period 1985-1987.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0801481589
• ISBN 13: 9780801481581
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 266