Heidegger's Later Philosophy [Paperback]

Julian Young (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0521006090 | ISBN-13: 978-0521006095

This book offers a clear and informative interpretation of Heidegger's extremely complex later philosophy (which is often dismissed as unintelligible mysticism), exploring its main themes and offering analyses of its most obscure formulations. It will be widely welcomed by students as well as scholars in Heidegger studies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Young contests the common view that Hidegger's 'real' philosphy stops with eing and Time by claiming that Heidegger's later philosophy offers a unique diagnostic and therapeutic approach to modern destitution.... For graduate students, researchers, and faculty." Choice

"This is a wonderful book on Heidegger as physician and teacher."
Miles Groth, The Review of Metaphysics

Book Description

This book offers a clear, readable and informative interpretation of Heidegger's extremely difficult and rebarbative later philosophy, exploring its main themes and offering analyses of its most obscure formulations. It will be widely welcomed by both students and scholars in Heidegger studies.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (December 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521006090
• ISBN-13: 978-0521006095
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,465,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A way forward for philosophy after Nietzsche, January 22, 2006

By 

Sam Johnson (Auckland, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heidegger's Later Philosophy (Paperback)

Julian Young's book on Heidegger's Later Philosophy (2005) provides a clear and concise overview Heidegger's developed thinking. I greatly enjoyed Young's earlier book, The Death of God and the Meaning of Life (2001). His chapters on Heidegger in this book were intriguing, making me very keen to read about Heidegger in more detail.

Though I studied theology at university, I also have a deep interest in philosophy. While I will not attempt to summarise Young's exposition of Heidegger's in this review, I will say that I feel Heidegger's thinking provides a way forward for philosophy after the huge impact of Nietzsche ("God is dead", "there are no [moral] facts, only interpretations", etc). Though reading and understanding Nietzsche will raise serious religious doubts, I cite a slightly cliched phrase: "With doubt there's no way back, but there is a way through." Heidegger's later philosophy by no means provides the comforts and promises of conventional religion. However, it does provide an intellectually credible alternitive to the bleak nihilism of much philosophy of the Nietzschean tradition. (Final note: the picture and colours used on the cover of the book are significant, hinting at the 'green' implications of Heidegger's philosophy.)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good overview of later Heidegger, September 4, 2007

By 

C Hill (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heidegger's Later Philosophy (Paperback)

This book is an outstanding introduction to later Heidegger. Its main virtue is its clarity and brevity. Most works on philosophy are excesively long. Not this one. Young works far enough from American institutions to be free from the devastating influence of Derrida that is crippling American Continental philosophy. Unfortunately, he stays away from using "Heideggerianisms." The disadvantage of that is that this work is perhaps written a little too plainly, making it less interesting too read. He is also distanced enough from England to be free of the arrogant wit(lessness) of analytic philosophy. Still, there is some tendency to understand Heidegger's philosophy in an epistemological light rather than an ontological. For example, many of the key concepts are understood exclusively as "modes of disclosure." He has the courage to try to explain the fourfold and to attempt to answer the question of what Being is. The latter is not a good question to ask since for Heidegger, Being is not the kind of a "thing" to have a whatness, but he does make the valuable distinction between being and Being, which I agree is at work in Heidegger. He, however, unnecessarily, wants to link Being with god and sometimes is unsure about which of his meanings is being used and in those cases Young writes "B/being." I appreciate his willingness to approach these important questions head-on, which scholars usually think are either too silly or too archaic to worry about.

Young has a great command of the Heideggerian corpus but makes almost no reference to secondary literature. His working-out of the notion of Gestell is laborious but outstanding. There is a helpful "common sense" approach to some of the more difficult concepts and a use of good examples to clarify them.

One of the advantages of this book is that Young does show conclusively, that one can derive an Heideggerian ethics from some of the clear and obvious statements Heidegger did make and without the need to be too creative. There is quite an emphasis on philosophy of art and ecology, which seem to be Young's personal interests.

My main concerns are the aforementioned lack of ontological nuance as well as of phenomenology, which are still operative in the later Heidegger. But as these are challenging and not fashionable, most scholars ignore them.

My second complaint about this book is its odious citation mode. Who knows what bizarre manual of style Cambridge University Press is making him use but it is annoying to say the least. Every Heideggerian word AND every single common word used in an Heideggerian sense is placed within single quotations. Phrases are cited parenthetically. A list of abbreviations name the sources of the most commonly used texts. Untranslated Heideggerian works are cited in the GA# convention. Some short comments are placed within parenthesis. And to avoid any consistency whatsoever on top of that we have footnotes used for parenthetical remarks and other sources. This makes for visually offensive sentences like "Since the fundamental term _Being and Time_ uses to picture 'average everyday','inauthentic' Dasein's stance to death is _evasion_, 'negation' means here, I suggest, 'evasion'. Most of us are unable to look death directly in the face without terror: terror before the 'abyss' (_Abgund_, absence of ground) (WPF p. 92), the 'empty nothing' (BDT p. 151), horror at the void." The confusion between abbreviations, GA convention, parenthesis and foot/endnotes is not exclusive to this book or publisher. Some seem to favor this madness. If publishers aren't aware yet of the problem this poses, they will be when one day all of the 102 volumes Of Heidegger's works are translated. In that case will there be a list of 102+ abbreviations used? Will they expect readers to make sense of the acronym soup? Wasn't the purpose of footnotes to replace hideous parentheses to begin with? As the sentence above shows, Young has also a tendency to introduce himself into the text for no good reason. Finally, the universe of this book is populated entirely by females- "she" this, "she" that. I've seen this in other CUP books so I won't blame the author. It is pathetic that a distinguished publisher would as late as 2002 still pander to moronic politically correct fads.

Once one gets past the single-quotation, parenthesis, and footnote madness, one will find a clean and concise elucidation of a good part of Heidegger's later works. Young also does a fine job of addressing common views about underlying currents in Heideggerian thought and arguing for his interpretation. Highly recommended for anyone interested in later Heidegger, ethics, ecology, philosophy of art, as well as those who are not fond of early Heidegger or _Being and Time_ but are looking for the more accessible aspect of Heidegger.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars weeding the garden near the dwelling of the guardian, February 9, 2004

By 

Alvaro Lewis "jwatson5" (Redwood City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heidegger's Later Philosophy (Paperback)

Julian Young presents a sympathetic but not uncritical summary of Heidegger's later philosophy. Heidegger's, often maligned, late mystical or unintelligible musings are granted much benefit of the doubt. The book is surprisingly small and clear, given the number of articles and thoughts Heidegger produced long after his mid-maturity turning away. Among the major topics addressed are: metaphysics, technology, ecology, dwelling, and the guardian. Young grants little context beyond the philosphical, at which he is adept, and provides few psychological insights concerning the changes and development of Heidegger's thoughts. (I suppose it is unfair to clamor for a synthetic appraisal Heidegger's politics and philosophical development from a book seeking to be a handy overview of thoughts not of a life.) This book resembles a map of Sicily that mentions and stars all of the attractions except for the fiery pit of Etna.