Heidegger's Platonism (Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy, 81) - Softcover

Ralkowski, Mark A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1441112294 ISBN 13: 9781441112293

Publisher: Continuum, 2011

Synopsis

Heidegger's Platonism challenges Heidegger's 1940 interpretation of Plato as the philosopher who initiated the West's ontological decline into contemporary nihilism. Mark A. Ralkowski argues that, in his earlier lecture course, On the Essence of Truth, in which he appropriates Plato in a positive light, Heidegger discovered the two most important concepts of his later thought, namely the difference between the Being of beings and Being as such, and the 'belonging together' of Being and man in what he eventually calls Ereignis, the 'event of appropriation'.

Ralkowski shows that, far from being the grand villain of metaphysics, Plato was in fact the gateway to Heidegger's later period. Because Heidegger discovers the seeds of his later thought in his positive appropriation of Plato, this book argues that Heidegger's later thought is a return to and phenomenological transformation of Platonism, which is ironic not least because Heidegger thought of himself as the West's first truly post-Platonic philosopher.

About this title

About the Author

Mark A. Ralkowski is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Honors at the George Washington University, USA. He is the author of Plato's Trial of Athens and Heidegger's Platonism (Continuum, 2009), and is the editor of Carol J. White's Time and Death: Heidegger's Analysis of Finitude.

Edition details

• Publisher: Continuum
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1441112294
• ISBN 13: 9781441112293
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240