The Essence of Truth: On Plato's Cave Allegory and Theaetetus (Athlone Contemporary European Thinkers) [Paperback]

Martin Heidegger (Author), Ted Sadler (Author, Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0826459226 | ISBN-13: 978-0826459220 | Publication Date: June 2002

One of Heidegger's most important works, this text gives a thorough explanation of what is arguably the most fundamental and abiding theme of his philosophy, namely the difference between truth as the "unhiddenness of beings" and truth as the "correctness of propositions". For Heidegger, it was by neglecting the former primordial concept of truth in favour of the latter derivative concept that Western philosophy, beginning with Plato himself, took off on its "metaphysical" course towards the bankruptcy of the present day. This book consists of a lecture course delivered by Heidegger at the University of Freiburg in 1931-32. The first part is a detailed analysis of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" in "The Republic", while the second part gives an exegesis and interpretation of a central section of Plato's "Theaetetus". As always with Heidegger's writings on the Greeks, the point of his interpretative method is to bring to light the original meaning of philosophical concepts, especially to free up these concepts to their intrinsic power.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Over the past decade, an abundant number of Heidegger's writings have been translated into English. Key among them are the lectures he delivered both prior to and following the writing of his magnum opus, Being and Time, which allow us as never before to chart Heidegger's philosophical development. Here are two new additions to the series. The Essence of Human Freedom, which derives from a set of lectures Heidegger delivered in 1930 at Freiburg, focuses on human freedom as the leading question of philosophy. Heidegger contends that this emphasis on freedom enables us to understand philosophy as a "going-after-the-whole" that is at the same time a "going-to-our-roots." In other words, we must search for the essence of human freedom in the constant presence of being-in-the-world that precedes and grounds philosophical thinking. Heidegger plunders Kant's understandings of freedom and Aristotle's theories of metaphysics to establish his own theory that the understanding of human freedom provides the starting point for philosophy (metaphysics). One year later, Heidegger turned his gaze on the essence of truth. In a lecture course delivered at Freiburg in 1931-32, he engaged in a close philosophical reading of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" and a section from Plato's Theaetetus. In Plato's allegory, men are shackled and can only see the shadows cast on the cave's wall by a fire. These shadows are their reality. But when one of them escapes into the sunlight, he sees that the shadows are not reality but illusion. For Heidegger, this man-who in Plato's story becomes the model for a philosopher-has had the truth revealed to him. Truth cannot be possessed merely as correct propositions, as Heidegger argues that the history of philosophy has taught. Rather, he contends, "the question of the essence of truth as unhiddenness is the question of the history of human essence." A shorter essay that derives from this lecture can be found in both Basic Writings and in Existence and Being. These new volumes reveal Heidegger's consummate exegetical and hermeneutical skills, but given their technical philosophical jargon, they are recommended only for academic or large public libraries.
Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Finally a short note on the book. Ted Sadler’s writing is an example to the general reader of how to read philosophical texts slowly, as one reads poems, of the encounter with ‘the art of going slowly [following] Heidegger’s conviction that philosophy, genuinely undertaken and carried through, subverts the impatient “hunger for results” so characteristic of the modern age’ [x-xi]. Within the world of scholarship this is a classic that will certainly stimulate any future discussion, but on Heidegger’s terms.” –Francesco Tampoia, Philosophy in Review/ Comptes Rendus Philosophiques, January 2004-June 2004 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Athlone Pr (June 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826459226
• ISBN-13: 978-0826459220
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,756,691 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Essence of Truth', October 17, 2002

By 

Jessica Bloom (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essence of Truth: On Plato's Cave Allegory and Theaetetus (Athlone Contemporary European Thinkers) (Paperback)

One of Heidegger's most important works, The Essence of Truth, bears witness to a shift in emphais, in which truth and by extension, being, no longer happens through the agency of Dasein, but in the 'open' in which Dasein is uncovered. By a slow and careful reading of Plato's allegory of the cave, Heidegger shows how truth ceased to be 'unhiddenness' and became mere 'correctness', beginning the degeneration of thought about being into metaphysics.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heidegger's Confrontation with Plato, June 29, 2009

By 

Tony See "New Thinker" (Singapore, Switzerland, Shanghai) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essence of Truth: On Plato's Parable of the Cave and the Theaetetus (Continuum Impacts) (Paperback)

This is an excellent introduction to Heidegger's thoughts on Plato. Although much has been written about the way Heidegger sought to overcome the Western Metaphysical tradition, relatively little has been written about the way he sought to bring about a deeper, or in some cases, reinterpretation of Plato's Republic. Here, Heidegger goes into the very heart of Plato's Republic to discover an account of truth that is not grounded in some metaphysical subject that is opposed to some object, but one that is grounded in "unconcealment" itself. This work, when read together with Heidegger's The Origins of the Work of Art offers one a penetrating insight into the very grounds of Heidegger's disagreement with the received philosophical tradition.

0 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Insubstantiality of Being (a cave-in), November 5, 2008

By 

Alaric - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Essence of Truth: On Plato's Parable of the Cave and the Theaetetus (Continuum Impacts) (Paperback)

Being as clarification (unhiddenness) v. correctness (propositional validity). 3. Beholding the Ideal contained in flux.

As far as throwing light upon "Being", Heidegger's 'clearing' consists only in the aperture of the cornea that is

formed around the iris: it does not go deeper into 'it'. Heidegger's idea of leaving the cave consists in facing

the light and seeing what is 'nakedly'. This might be adequate if what occurs in the eye is not mere sense, but

also the faculty of judgement; the case is that sense impressions are subject to judgement (interpretation, if

you like) prior to their becoming SUBJECT to our awareness. That is, 'direct consciousness' of objects is

mediated by the understanding, and it is a misnomer to speak of consciousness as being 'direct' in any SENSE

whatsoever. As for the Will, Being is only directly conceived through [carpe diem] it in the process of

becoming [panta rei] precisely WHEN one surrenders the status of compos mentis as a 'true' entity for that

which makes for a greater awareness through intuition (i.e. knowing, and not a greater 'proximity' to Being

which in any case would be only another state achieved and not a 'field of vision' gained). This expresses the

paradoxical nature of truth, of Dasein as Werdens; as neither Being nor Nothing. The concept of truth as

unhiddenness of Dasein remains problematic given its visual nature, which is in no way adequate a model of

the understanding, or even Will to remain tenable: unhiddenness is not disclosure, and if the error was

one of judgement in the first place it is not a question of sight which unveils, but insight that discloses the

'nature' of things-in-themselves (Beings, if you will) as they are, from which we can reason back and

distill what we receive first as sense datum, to the pure Idea which is beholden to us (it as necessary and dear

to us, as we to it).