Being and Truth

The two lecture courses collected in the volume entitled Being and Truth were delivered during Heidegger's tenure as the first Nazi rector of the University of Freiburg and thus in his darkest hour as a philosopher. . . When reading Heidegger's political statements, which frame and punctuate his otherwise thought-provoking philosophical analyses . . . what is most striking, ultimately, is Heidegger's utter blindness with respect to the true nature of an odious and destructive worldview and his systematic yet delusional projection of a profound transformation of Europe's destiny and a new dawn into the darkest episode of German history.6/3/11 * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *

Gregory Fried is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Suffolk University. He is author of Heidegger's Polemos: From Being to Politics and editor (with Richard Polt) of A Companion to Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics. Richard Polt is Professor in the Philosophy Department at Xavier University. He is author of The Emergency of Being: On Heidegger's Contributions to Philosophy and Heidegger: An Introduction.

Translators' Foreword THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION OF PHILOSOPHY Summer Semester 1933 Introduction: The Fundamental Question of Philosophy and the Fundamental Happening of Our History Main Part: The Fundamental Question and Metaphysics: Preparation for a Confrontation with Hegel Chapter One. The Development, Transformation, and Christianization of Traditional Metaphysics Chapter Two. The System of Modern Metaphysics and the First of Its Primary Determining Grounds: The Mathematical Chapter Three. Determination by Christianity and the Concept of Mathematical-Methodological Grounding in the Metaphysical Systems of Modernity Chapter Four. Hegel: The Completion of Metaphysics as Theo-logic Conclusion ON THE ESSENCE OF TRUTH Winter Semester 1933-1934 Introduction: The Question of Essence as Insidious and Unavoidable Part One. Truth and Freedom: An Interpretation of the Allegory of the Cave in Plato's Republic Chapter One. The Four Stages of the Happening of Truth Chapter Two. The Idea of the Good and Unconcealment Chapter Three. The Question of the Essence of Untruth Part Two. An Interpretation of Plato's Theaetetus With Regard to the Question of the Essence of Untruth Chapter One. Preliminary Considerations on the Greek Concept of Knowledge Chapter Two. Theaetetus's Answers to the Question of the Essence of Knowledge and their Rejection Chapter Three. The Question of the Possibility of Appendix I Notes and drafts for the lecture course of Summer Semester 1933 Appendix II Notes and drafts for the lecture course of Winter Semester 1933-1934 Editor's Afterword German-English Glossary