A Companion to Heidegger's "Introduction to Metaphysics"

by Richard Polt and Gregory Fried

• ISBN13: 9780300085242
• ISBN10: 0300085249
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-03-11
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

Martin Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics, first published in 1953, is a highly significant work by a towering figure in twentieth-century philosophy. The volume is known for its incisive analysis of the Western understanding of Being, its original interpretations of Greek philosophy and poetry, and its vehement political statements. This new companion to the Introduction to Metaphysics presents an overview of Heidegger's text and a variety of perspectives on its interpretation from more than a dozen highly respected contributors.

In the editors' introduction to the book, Richard Polt and Gregory Fried alert readers to the important themes and problems of Introduction to Metaphysics. The contributors then offer original essays on three broad topics: the question of Being, Heidegger and the Greeks, and politics and ethics. Both for readers who are approaching Heidegger for the first time and for those who are studying Heidegger on an advanced level, this Companion offers a clear guide to one of the philosopher's most difficult yet most influential writing

Table of Contents

Editor's Introduction	vii
Bibliographical Note	xiv
Part I THE QUESTION OF BEING
Kehre and Ereignis: A Prolegomenon to Introduction to Metaphysics	3	(14)
Thomas Sheehan
The Appearance of Metaphysics	17	(17)
Charles E. Scott
Being as Appearing: Retrieving the Greek Experience of Phusis	34	(23)
Charles Guignon
The Question of Nothing	57	(26)
Richard Polt
The Scattered Logos: Metaphysics and the Logical Prejudice	83	(20)
Daniel Dahlstrom
The Name on the Edge of Language: A Complication in Heidegger's Theory of Language and Its Consequences	103	(22)
Dieter Thoma
Part II HEIDEGGER AND THE GREEKS
What's in a World? Heidegger's Grammar and Etymology of ``Being''	125	(18)
Gregory Fried
Heidegger's Interpretation of Phusis in Introduction to Metaphysics	143	(18)
Susan Schoenbohm
Heidegger's Antigones	161	(24)
Clare Pearson Geiman
Part III POLITICS AND ETHICS
The Ontological Decline of the West	185	(20)
Michael E. Zimmerman
``Conflict Is the Father of All Things'': Heidegger's Polemical Conception of Politics	205	(21)
Hans Sluga
Heidegger's Philosophical Geopolitics in the Third Reich	226	(24)
Theodore Kisiel
At the Crossroads of Freedom: Ethics Without Values	250	(13)
Frank Schalow
Notes	263	(68)
About the Contributors	331	(2)
Index	333