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Product Details
Series: How to Read
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (April 17, 2006)
An interesting aspect to this book is that every chapter starts out with about a page of Heidegger's actual writing. I would read this dense prose before and after reading Mr. Wrathall's discussion of the chapter topic. After reading the author's interpretation I would go back and read Heidegger's words again, and find that I had a better understanding of the original.
I would assume that the main reason one writes a review of a book like this is not to critique the philosophy that it contains, but to inform the prospective reader as to the comprehensibility of the presentation of that philosophy. Mr. Wrathall performs admirably in this regard. As a relative philosophical novice I found that this book turned night into day.
The author covers the topic of Heidegger's views of our being in the world; how our place in the world creates our possibilities and our constraints. It discusses how our culture forms us and can limit us. Do we become authentic or inauthentic beings in terms of how much we conform to culture. Heidegger's views on technology are presented. He feels that we should be part of the earth, and not conform the earth to our every need. We should not view that earth as something that merely provides us with resources.
There is also a chapter on Heidegger's views of art and truth. I found that I had a harder time relating to his views on aesthetics, than I did with the rest of his philosophy.
This is an excellent book for those with limited backgrounds in philosophy and/or Heidegger's works. It might also be worthwhile to those who have encountered Heidegger in the past, and need a littler refresher to his works.
One final comment: The author is evidently fluent in German. He frequently disagrees with some of the German to English translations, and provides his ideas of what the German words really mean in English. I found this to be an added bonus
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My fullest expectations were not met in this book, my previous experience with the "How to Read" series coming from Caputo's "How to Read Kierkegaard," which was a categorical success. While I have more bad things to say about the book than good, do keep in mind that the book is well written, interesting, and does a good job as a very quick introduction to the subject. I am a little confused by this book's shortcomings, though. I am not sure if Heidegger requires too much footwork to develop a basic grasp of, and too much in the way of basic development to draw together a strong sense of his overall philosophical mindset, but I definitely think I only gleaned an understanding of Heidegger's major terms (Dasein, Being-in-the-World, etc.), his disposition technology, thought on language, and his thought on art. What I fully expected to get was some biographical context (esp. in the ways of Heidegger's goal in his philosophical project), historical context (there was almost none), and a modest survey of Heidegger's corpus (basically nada, though the author refers to many of Heidegger's works in the bibliography). Wrathall does a great job in explaining why Heidegger was so taken by the Nazis, which was quite enlightening, erasing some of the needless vilification of Heidegger that has been done without understanding Heidegger's motivations. However, I think this is about the only real historical element that's given, so I found nothing of value pertaining to Heidegger's influences (philosophers, cultural, etc.). Even more disappointing was the fact that I was particularly interested in understanding why Heidegger is considered a phenomenologist, but I don't think the term was mentioned once.Read more ›
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
To the chagrin of some and to the delight of others, Heidegger's influence seems to have bloomed in the past decade. No longer a mere hopelessly whimsical obscurantist, his once berated name even pops up in Analytic philosophy courses. None of this has made Heidegger's text easier to understand, of course. But anyone wanting to penetrate his spiny thicket of obscure and recursive prose in English can now find much more help. Guides for "beginners" have bred like rabbits recently. Additional volumes seem to fall from the sky every few months. Nonetheless, many of these "introductions" would probably not serve absolute beginners (i.e., those lacking backgrounds in philosophy) very efficiently. Heidegger's work remains notoriously difficult to distill into facile chunks, particularly in isolation from the long philosophical tradition his work addresses. Enter Mark Wrathall's "How To Read Heidegger." This short book seems to pinpoint those readers possessing virulent curiosity about Heidegger's ideas but not possessing extensive philosophical backgrounds. Of course this involves a tradeoff in overall depth and breadth, but the absolute newcomer will at least puncture that nagging question "what's all this fuss about Heidegger?"
Though this 118-page book only skims the surface of Heidegger's main ideas, it nonetheless covers a lot of ground. Both "early" and "late" Heidegger appear. First, a short introduction provides a defense against charges of illogicism (or even alogicism) while setting the overall context. It's important to understand that Heidegger did challenge the primacy of science (at least ontologically) but he never thought that science was misguided or should "go away.Read more ›
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