SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy – serie

A revised translation of Heidegger's most important work.The publication in 1927 of Martin Heidegger's magnum opus, Being and Time, signaled an intellectual event of the first order and had an impact in fields far beyond that of philosophy proper. Being and Time has long been recognized as a landmark work of the twentieth century for its original analyses of the character of philosophic inquiry and the relation of the possibility of such inquiry to the human situation. Still provocative and much disputed, Heidegger's text has been taken as the inspiration for a variety of innovative movements in fields ranging from psychoanalysis, literary theory, existentialism, ethics, hermeneutics, and theology. A work that disturbs the traditions of philosophizing that it inherits, Being and Time raises questions about the end of philosophy and the possibilities for thinking liberated from the presumptions of metaphysics.The Stambaugh translation captures the vitality of the language and thinking animating Heidegger's original text. It is also the most comprehensive edition insofar as it includes the marginal notes made by Heidegger in his own copy of Being and Time, and takes account of the many changes that he made in the final German edition of 1976. The revisions to the original translation correct some ambiguities and problems that have become apparent since the translation appeared fifteen years ago. Bracketed German words have also been liberally inserted both to clarify and highlight words and connections that are difficult to translate, and to link this translation more closely to the German text.

Investigates the philosophical relationship between Levinas and Heidegger in a nonpolemical context, engaging some of philosophy's most pressing issues.Although both Levinas and Heidegger drew inspiration from Edmund Husserl's phenomenological method and helped pave the way toward the post-structuralist movement of the late twentieth century, very little scholarly attention has been paid to the relation of these two thinkers. There are plenty of simple-and accurate-oppositions and juxtapositions: French and German, ethics and ontology, and so on. But there is also a critical intersection between Levinas and Heidegger on some of the most fundamental philosophical questions: What does it mean to be, to think, and to act in late modern life and culture? How do our conceptions of subjectivity, time, and history both reflect the condition of this historical moment and open up possibilities for critique, resistance, and transformation? The contributors to this volume take up these questions by engaging the ideas of Levinas and Heidegger relating to issues of power, violence, secularization, history, language, time, death, sacrifice, responsibility, memory, and the boundary between the human and humanism.

A critical and creative reconstruction of Adorno's conception of truth that shows its relevance for contemporary philosophy, art, and politics.An elusive and complex idea of truth lies at the center of Theodor Adorno's thought. Yet he never spells out what it is. Through close readings of Negative Dialectics, Aesthetic Theory, and related course lectures, Lambert Zuidervaart reconstructs Adorno's conception of truth, contrasts it with the conceptions of Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault, and explores its relevance for contemporary philosophy, art, and politics. Adorno regards truth as a dynamic constellation in which various dialectical polarities intersect. The most decisive polarity, Zuidervaart argues, occurs between society as it has developed and the historical possibility of a completely transformed world. Critically reconstructed, Adorno's conception of truth can help inspire hopeful critiques of an allegedly post-truth society.

A particularly insightful commentary on Heidegger's thinking, as well as a fascinating look at Gadamer himself.The combination of author and subject matter found here makes an unusually interesting text on the Continental European Philosophy of the twentieth century. As Heidegger's former student, colleague and lifelong friend, Gadamer offers a particularly insightful commentary on Heidegger's thinking. Not only do the essays focus on Heidegger's thought, but they also often begin with a description of the philosophical scene in which he first appeared, giving the reader a genuine feel for the kind of impact he made. But the essays do not leave off in the past; rather, they lead into the present, giving Heidegger a voice which continues to have a revolutionary impact.The text does not only provide a commentary on Heidegger; it also provides a fascinating look at Gadamer himself. The narratives provide us with an intimate look at both the author and his hermeneutics at work, and his commentary on Heidegger's thought is a commentary on his own thought as well.

Text of and reflection on the 1981 encounter between Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jacques Derrida, which featured a dialogue between hermeneutics in Germany and post-structuralism in France.Before the encounter in 1981 between Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jacques Derrida, there had been virtually no confrontation or dialogue between hermeneutics in Germany and post-structuralism in France, nor has there been since then. Part I of this book makes available for the first time in English the complete texts of the encounter at the Goethe Institute in Paris. This exchange raised such issues as Gadamer's relation to psychoanalytic interpretation, the questionability of texts, Heidegger's reading of Nietzsche, and the dialogical aspect of language.Part II offers further reflections by Gadamer on the encounter itself and its relation of hermeneutics to deconstruction. Among the issues covered are Derrida's interpretation of "Destruktion" in Heidegger, Derrida's attack on logocentrism in Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche, and the relation of Heidegger, hermeneutics, and deconstruction to dialectic.Part III offers commentaries on the encounter from a variety of perspectives. The authors assess the original encounter as well as Gadamer's subsequent reflections on it.

"It is by all means a dubious thing to depend and rest on what an author himself has brought to the forefront. The important thing is rather to give attention to those things he left shrouded in silence."Such was the methodological advice, given in 1924 by Heidegger himself, that is rigorously followed in this book, Heidegger and the Project of Fundamental Ontology. The project involves the vast complex of problems that emerged around Being and Time (1927) and then continued from the time of the Marburg lecture courses (1923-1928) up to the Freiburg lectures (1928-1935), today available in the Gesamtausgabe. Heidegger's silence concerning some of his foundational sources is a fact fully recognized by those who have carefully read him. This book systematically explores and critically assesses the silences concerning Husserl, the Aristotle of Book VI of the Nicomachean Ethics, the Hegel of Phenomenology, Nietzsche, and even Descartes. What emerges is a systematic and original reinterpretation of 'fundamental ontology' focused on the self-understanding of the human Dasein as the key for understanding the various meanings of Being and the entire deconstructed history of ontology. The project culminated in the pretensions to absoluteness rampant in modern metaphysics, with its peak and paroxysm to be found in The Introduction to Metaphysics (1935).In regard to the 'Heidegger affair', this book, which was begun well before the present turmoil, shows both the ambiguity and coherence of Heidegger's involvement with the Nazis, and, for the first time, exposes the work of the young Heidegger to a rigorous and wholesome internal criticism. By delineating the origins, the shifts, and the final outcome from within his own field, phenomenology, it allows us to reflect on this difficult question at its depth and origin.

This translation of Lyotard's first book, La Phenomenologie, supplies an important link to Lyotard's more recent works. Phenomenology presents a commentary on the phenomenological movement. From the dual perspectives of a work on, and of, phenomenology, Lyotard's text profiles the different aspects of phenomenology, focusing particularly on the writings of Hegel, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Tran Duc Thao. Phenomenology marks a particular episode in Lyotard's reflections on the "philosophical project" and is emblematic of his critical reflections on philosophy's involvements in routine, daily commitments. Like Merleau-Ponty, in this work Lyotard eliminates philosophy as a "separate existence." Beyond offering an account of certain phenomenological themes, Lyotard's commentary explicates phenomenology's relevance to psychology, sociology, and history.

In these essays, appearing for the first time in English, Gadamer addresses practical questions about recent politics in Europe, about education and university reform, and about the role of poetry in the modern world. This book also includes a series of interviews that the editors conducted in 1986. Gadamer elaborates on his experiences in education and politics, touching on the collapse of the Weimar Republic, the early Frankfurt School, Heidegger and the Nazis, university life in East Germany, and the prospects for Europe in the coming years.Hans-Georg Gadamer was probably Heidegger's leading interpreter in Germany, and in the 1950s and 1960s he became the world's leading exponent of hermeneutics. His hermeneutical theory explains how it is that ancient art and philosophy still speak to us today. His influential idea of the "fusion of horizons" also shows how it is that we understand what is remote form our own culture.

This book is a close reading of Jacques Lacan's seminal essay, "The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason Since Freud, " selected for the particular light it casts on Lacan's complex relation to linguistics, psychoanalysis, and philosophy. It clarifies the way Lacan renews or transforms the psychoanalytic field, through his diversion of Saussure's theory of the sign, his radicalization of Freud's fundamental concepts, and his subversion of dominant philosophical values. The authors argue, however, that Lacan's discourse is marked by a deep ambiguity: while he invents a new "language," he nonetheless maintains the traditional metaphysical motifs of systemacity, foundation, and truth.

Develops a fourfold theory of hermeneutics and applies it to educational theory to show how interpretation shapes learning, teaching, and the philosophical foundations of education.In Hermeneutics and Education, Shaun Gallagher offers a groundbreaking philosophical investigation into the role of interpretation in learning, teaching, and educational theory. Moving beyond abstract debate, Gallagher develops a rich fourfold typology of hermeneutics—conservative, moderate, critical, and radical—each articulated through a set of guiding principles that illuminate how meaning is formed, contested, and transformed in educational contexts.With clarity and philosophical rigor, Gallagher not only maps these positions but tests their implications against contemporary educational theory. He shows how each hermeneutical stance can deepen educational practice, while also critically examining the limits of hermeneutic approaches through insights drawn from learning theory.This work is both a theoretical landmark and a practical provocation. It challenges educators and philosophers alike to reconsider the foundations of educational meaning, authority, and interpretation.Wide-ranging, deeply researched, and conceptually innovative, Hermeneutics and Education is essential reading for scholars of philosophy of education, curriculum theory, and hermeneutic philosophy—and a powerful resource for anyone interested in how understanding is shaped in the classroom and beyond.

Traces the development of aesthetic judgment from Kant through German Idealism to modern continental philosophy, offering detailed readings of major thinkers to show how debates about art, truth, and metaphysics continue to shape philosophical thought today.In this sweeping and intellectually rigorous study, Jacques Taminiaux establishes his stature as one of the foremost historians and philosophers of post-Kantian continental thought. Tracing the fate of aesthetic judgment from its pivotal emergence in Kant's philosophy, Taminiaux follows its reverberations through German Idealism and into the most influential currents of modern and contemporary thought.At the center of Poetics, Speculation, and Judgment lies a sustained investigation into how questions of judgment, speculation, and aesthetic experience reshape the trajectory of philosophy after Kant. Through meticulous and incisive readings, Taminiaux engages a remarkable constellation of thinkers—including Friedrich Schiller, Friedrich Hölderlin, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty—revealing how each reconfigures the tension between art, truth, and metaphysics.From the "end of metaphysics" to the "death of art," from the nostalgia for ancient Greece to the transformation of aesthetic experience in modern philosophy, Taminiaux illuminates the enduring philosophical stakes of aesthetic judgment. His analyses are as historically grounded as they are conceptually daring, offering new clarity on some of the most contested problems in continental philosophy.More than a commentary on German Idealism and its aftermath, Poetics, Speculation, and Judgment also charts the intellectual itinerary of Taminiaux’s own thought across three decades—showing a thinker continually testing, refining, and renewing his insights in response to the tradition he interrogates.

Michel Haar argues that Heidegger went too far in transferring all traditional properties of man to being. Haar examines what is left, after this displacement, not only of human identity, but perhaps more importantly, of nature, life, embodiment-of the flesh of human existence. This sensitive yet critical reading of Heidegger raises such issues in relation to questions of language, technology, human freedom, and history. In doing so, it provides a compelling argument for the need to rethink what it means to be human.

Philosophical Papers is useful for readers interested in the story of twentieth century continental philosophy. The book leads the reader throughout the shifts and turns in the often serpentine development of the philosophical perspectives within continental thought that have now become the legacy of our time.The author carries on a conversation, which at times congeals into a confrontation, with the principal proponents of the various philosophical persuasions. They include Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Ricoeur, Gadamer, Habermas, Derrida, Deleuze, and Lyotard. Insofar as three nineteenth century philosophers-in particular, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche-figured so decisively in the shaping of twentieth century continental thought, they too become part of the wider story being told.The concluding essays in the volume display the most recent efforts of the author to come to grips with the consequences of rationality between the universal claims of reason in modernity and the particular, heterogeneous, and local narratives of power and desire in postmodernity. The location of rationality betwixt and between the modern and the postmodern provides a space for a dynamics of transversal rationality oriented toward a convergence without coincidence, both in the life of thought and the life of action.

Devoted to the rediscovery of Heidegger's earliest thought leading up to his magnum opus of 1927, Being and Time.Reading Heidegger from the Start is devoted to the rediscovery of Heidegger's earliest thought leading up to his magnum opus of 1927, Being and Time. Using published and unpublished lectures and other recently available texts by Heidegger, the authors in this anthology retrace the development and significance of Heidegger's early interpretations of Aristotle, Husserl, St. Paul, Augustine, Luther, Kierkegaard, Dilthey, Jaspers, and Kant. In addition to the usual questions of being and time and truth and the self, contributors venture discussions of Heidegger's very first explorations of the end of philosophy and its destruction, logic and language, ethics and theology, the retrieval of primal Christianity, factic life as precursor to Dasein, the turn as re-turn, and a hermeneutic phenomenology focused on "formal indication" (the latter a hitherto unknown theme illustrated in this book).

Janicaud clarifies the project of "overcoming" metaphysics, a project that Heidegger himself recognized as open to innumerable misunderstandings, and Mattei inquires into the major Heideggerian texts produced between 1935 and 1969 to detect the cosmic figure of the Geviert, the initial Fourfold where "earth and sky, the divine ones and the mortals" gather."Philosophy has come to an end" claimed Heidegger in the final posthumously published interview he granted to Der Spiegel. The goal of Janicaud's chapters ("Overcoming Metaphysics?," "Heideggeriana," "Metamorphosis of the Undecidable," and the dialogue "Heidegger in New York") first of all is to clarify the project of "overcoming" metaphysics, a project that Heidegger himself recognized as open to innumerable misunderstandings. Is it really possible to surmount metaphysics, not by transgressing it, but by means of a patient elucidation of its key concepts? In the effort to underscore the originality of his own enterprise, doesn't Heidegger tend to project too harsh a dichotomy between the forgetfulness of Being and its authentic recollection? By raising these questions, Janicaud suggests that Heidegger himself does not elude the objections that he directs toward the great metaphysical thinkers.The final recourse to dialogue in the midst of twentieth-century New York—a landscape intentionally "different" from one expectedly Heideggerian—intends to hint at another possibility than the indefinite deconstruction of metaphysical texts. It suggests new ways for thoughtful meditation and a new cast for action.At the center of the book, Mattei evokes the "Heideggerian Chiasmus or the Setting-apart of Philosophy." Through an inquiry into the major Heideggerian texts produced between 1935 and 1969 and inspired by Holderlin's poetry, Mattei gradually detects the cosmic figure of the Geviert, the initial Fourfold where "earth and sky, the divine ones and the mortals" gather. Such a community, whose meaning Heidegger is the only one to decipher in our times, silently conforms to an archaic philosophy. The cosmic game of the Geviert also evokes, for Heidegger, the path of the Tao in the Chinese tradition. In this epoch characterized by the destruction of ontology, the two paths in which East and West meet may grant us moderns the hope one day of "dwelling" in the world.

Focuses on Nietzsche's later writings, where he appears unsystematic and indifferent to questions of truth.This clearly written book, intended for both specialists and nonspecialists, focuses on Nietzsche's later writings, where he appears unsystematic and indifferent to questions of truth.

This book provides an introduction to the historical sources of philosophical hermeneutics as it has come to fruition in the work of Heidegger and Gadamer.

Explores the meanings of subjectivity in continental philosophy in the wake of post-structuralism and critical theory.

Explores the meanings of subjectivity in continental philosophy in the wake of post-structuralism and critical theory.

Brings together all of Gadamer's published writings on Celan's poetry, and makes them available in English for the first time. This is accessible commentary on a notoriously difficult poet.Gadamer on Celan makes all of Hans-Georg Gadamer's published writings on Paul Celan's poetry available in English for the first time. Gadamer's commentaries on Celan's work are explicitly meant for a general audience, and they are further testimony to Celan's growing importance in world literature since the Second World War. Celan's poetry has attracted the attention of many well-known figures, including Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Derrida, Edmond Jabès, Otto Poggeler, and George Steiner. As Steiner has said, "It will take a long time for our sensibilities to apprehend poetry of these dimensions and this radicality." Gadamer's commentaries will help readers to listen to Celan's poetry, and to become acquainted with his only book-length commentary on a poet, using the best example of Gadamer's thinking on the relationship of philosophy and poetry.This book also contains a translation of Who Am I and Who Are You?, the centerpiece of Gadamer's most important philosophical project since the publication of Truth and Method (1960). Who Am I and Who Are You? demonstrates Gadamer's continual engagement with the key figures of twentieth-century thought, and his responsiveness to the challenges of modernist art and its various affronts to hermeneutics.

This first English translation illuminates Hegelianism's most obscure dialectical synthesis: the relation between the phenomenology and the logic. This book is essential for understanding the development of French thought in this century.Logic and Existence, which originally appeared in 1952, completes the project Hyppolite began with Genesis and Structure of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Taking up successively the role of language, reflection, and categories in Hegel's Science of Logic, Hyppolite illuminates Hegelianism's most obscure dialectical synthesis: the relation between the phenomenology and the logic.His interpretation of the relation between the phenomenology and the logic has the result of marking a rupture in French thought. Not only does Logic and Existence effectively end the humanistic reading of Hegel popularized by Kojève in France before World War II, but also it initiates the great anti-Hegelianism of French philosophy in the sixties. Hyppolite's work displays the originality of Hegel's thought in a new way, and sets up the means by which to escape from it. If the phrase "the philosophy of difference" defines French anti-Hegelianism, then we have to say that there would be no philosophy of difference without Logic and Existence. Derrida's notion of differance, Deleuze's logic of sense, and Foucault's reconception of history all stem from this book. This first English translation of the virtually unknown Logic and Existence is essential for the understanding of the development of French thought in this century.

This first book-length work of the prominent German philosopher Gunter Figal to appear in English offers a radical defense of metaphysical philosophy in the era of postmodern thought.This first book-length work of the prominent German philosopher Gunter Figal to appear in English offers a radical defense of metaphysical philosophy in the era of postmodern thought. For Figal, metaphysics does not represent an anachronistic and pernicious mode of thought that ought to be overcome but rather is a type of thinking that proceeds from a recognition of the necessary coherence of everything with its opposite. It is this agonistic relationship of opposites that Figal, following Heraclitus, terms strife. Rather than regarding the conflict of opposites as necessarily resulting in the dissolution of meaning and sense, as many contemporary thinkers maintain, Figal contends that sense and meaning can only come into existence metaphysically, that is to say, as a consequence of strife. And, the context within which strife occurs is freedom. Using these concepts of strife and freedom, Figal proposes new and provocative readings of Plato, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard, as well as of some of the most controversial figures of twentieth-century philosophy.

Richly informed by readings of Heidegger, Derrida, and Blanchot, the author argues that the notion of responsibility at the heart of Levinas's notion of ethics is intimately dependent upon his account of death.The work of Levinas has, for the most part, been too easily read. Levinas's use of words like "responsibility" and "God" gives some readers reason to dismiss his work as insufficiently attentive to the whispered suspicions of our times, while giving others reason to accept his work as a clarion call guiding them out of this wilderness of disorienting whispers. Richly informed by readings of Heidegger, Derrida, and Blanchot, Keenan argues that the notion of responsibility at the heart of Levinas's notion of ethics is intimately dependent upon his account of death.

Constitutes a thoughtful survey of contemporary hermeneutics in its historical context.Interrogating the Tradition interprets figures in the history of Western thought from a broad, "continental" perspective. Divided into three major sections-hermeneutical thought, Heidegger and the Greeks, and the question of nature in German Idealism-the question of origins is central throughout and takes various shapes, all within the context of the history of Western philosophy. Addressed are the form inquiries take into manners by which we receive our philosophical tradition, the originary force of Plato and Aristotle in the formation of philosophical interpretations of time and human life, and inceptional concepts of nature in the nineteenth century.The philosophers treated here are primarily ancient Greek and nineteenth-century German, but also included are careful discussions of Heidegger and Gadamer. Coming from both sides of the Atlantic and representing various approaches to the issues, the contributors showcase their work on one of the major cutting edges of philosophy.Contributors to this book include Robert Bernasconi, Walter Brogan, Tina Chanter, Françoise Dastur, John Ellis, Günter Figal, Rodolphe Gasché, Jean Grondin, David Farrell Krell, Michael Naas, James Risser, John Russon, John Sallis, Charles E. Scott, Ben Vedder, and Jason M. Wirth.

A new English translation of Schelling's unfinished magnum opus, complete with a contextualizing introduction by the translator.A new translation of the third and most sustained version of Schelling's magnum opus, this great heroic poem is a genealogy of time. Anticipating Heidegger, as well as contemporary debates about post-modernity and the limits of dialectical thinking, Schelling struggles with the question of time as the relationship between poetry and philosophy. Thinking in the wake of Hegel, although trying to think beyond his grasp, this extraordinary work is a poetic and philosophical address of difference, of thinking's relationship to its inscrutable ground.

An indispensable guide to the major work of one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers.This is the most comprehensive commentary on both Divisions of Heidegger's Being and Time, making it the essential guide for newcomers and specialists alike. Beginning with a non-technical exposition of the question Heidegger poses-"What does it mean to be?"-and keeping that question in view, it gradually increases the closeness of focus on the text. Citing Joan Stambaugh's translation, the author explains the key notions of the original with the help of concrete illustrations and reference to certain of the most relevant works Heidegger composed both before and after the publication of Being and Time.

Leading scholars address the ethical and practical dimensions of Heidegger's thought.Heidegger has often been reproached for his alleged neglect of practical issues, specifically his "inability" to propose or articulate an ethics or politics. This book investigates the extent to which Heidegger's thought can be read as a crucial resource for practical philosophy and the articulation of an ethos for our time. Leading scholars from around the world offer a sustained and intensive focus on Heidegger's thought of praxis, working through such motifs as freedom, the possibility of ethics, the political, responsibility, community, nihilism, technology and the contemporary ethos, among others. Ultimately, this volume reveals the practical senses of ontology, and the ontological senses of praxis by exhibiting the practicality of Being itself.

Rethinks the soul in plant-like terms rather than animal, drawing from nineteenth-century philosophy of nature.The Vegetative Soul demonstrates that one significant resource for the postmodern critique of subjectivity can be found in German Idealism and Romanticism, specifically in the philosophy of nature. Miller demonstrates that the perception of German Idealism and Romanticism as the culmination of the philosophy of the subject overlooks the nineteenth-century critique of subjectivity with reference to the natural world. This book's contribution is its articulation of a plant-like subjectivity. The vision of the human being as plant combats the now familiar conception of the modern subject as atomistic, autonomous, and characterized primarily by its separability and freedom from nature. Reading Kant, Goethe, Hölderlin, Hegel, and Nietzsche, Miller juxtaposes two strands of nineteenth-century German thought, comparing the more familiar "animal" understanding of individuation and subjectivity to an alternative "plantlike" one that emphasizes interdependence, vulnerability, and metamorphosis.While providing the necessary historical context, the book also addresses a question that has been very important for recent feminist theory, especially French feminism, namely, the question of the possible configuration of a feminine subject. The idea of the "vegetative" subject takes the traditional alignment of the feminine with nature and the earth and subverts and transforms it into a positive possibility. Although the roots of this alternative conception of subjectivity can be found in Kant's third Critique and its legacy in nineteenth-century Naturphilosophie, the work of Luce Irigaray brings it to fruition.