Hegel Heidegger And The Quest For The I

This thought-provoking study explores the philosophical resources provided by Hegel and Heidegger to grasp the nature of the “I” and combines those resources in a theoretical analysis of “I-hood” in its connection with nature and history, experience and myth. The “I” has a fleeting, almost elusive character in the philosophies of Hegel and Heidegger. Yet, both philosophers strive to make sense of what it means to be an “I”. Their respective theories, though seemingly divergent, offer remarkable insights into the nature of the “I” and its relationship to the world. Through meticulous examination, this book explores the parallel journeys of Hegel and Heidegger, tracing their respective paths towards a comprehensive conception of identity beyond the subject/object dichotomy. Moreover, this study goes beyond being an exploration of Hegel’s and Heidegger’s conceptions of the self by actively employing their insights to chart a path towards a novel understanding of “I-hood”. Hegel, Heidegger, and the Quest for the “I” will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working on Hegel, Heidegger, history of European philosophy, and contemporary theories of subjectivity and personal identity. Offering a fresh perspective on the work of these two seminal thinkers, the book contributes to the ongoing dialogue on the nature of the self and its place in the world.

Although there are various `religious' traces in Heidegger's philosophy, little effort has been made to show the systematic import which his thinking has for outlining a full range of religious and theological questions. Precisely because his thought is opposed to the construction of any `dogma', his vast writings provide clues to what meaning(s) the `Sacred' and the `Divine' may have in a postmodern age where the very possibility of `faith' hangs in the balance. By showing how Heidegger's own thinking can be interpreted as a struggle to come to terms with religious questions, this book undertakes a postmodern investigation of the Sacred which both draws upon and transcends various world-religions and denominations. A postmodern, non-sectarian vision of the Sacred thereby becomes possible which is open to the plurality of religious experiences on the one hand, and yet affirms on the other Heidegger's emphasis (in Beiträge zur Philosophie) on the `last god' as the displacing of all sectarian visions of god. This book will have special appeal to Heidegger scholars, as well as students interested in the overlap between phenomenology and philosophical theology.

A synthetic assessment of Heidegger’s entire path of thinking as a radical attempt to thematize and rethink the fundamental notions of unity dominating the Western metaphysical tradition. From its Presocratic beginnings, Western philosophy concerned itself with a quest for unity both in terms of the systematization of knowledge and as a metaphysical search for a unity of being—two trends that can be regarded as converging and culminating in Hegel’s system of absolute idealism. Since Hegel, however, the philosophical quest for unity has become increasingly problematic. Jussi Backman returns to that question in this book, examining the place of the unity of being in the work of Heidegger. Backman sketches a consistent picture of Heidegger as a thinker of unity who throughout his career in different ways attempted to come to terms with both Parmenides’s and Aristotle’s fundamental questions concerning the singularity or multiplicity of being—attempting to do so, however, in a “postmetaphysical” manner rooted in rather than above and beyond particular, situated beings. Through his analysis, Backman offers a new way of understanding the basic continuity of Heidegger’s philosophical project and the interconnectedness of such key Heideggerian concepts as ecstatic temporality, the ontological difference, the turn (Kehre), the event (Ereignis), the fourfold (Geviert), and the analysis of modern technology.

Schalow (U. of New Orleans) rectifies the neglect to distinguish the elements in the German philosopher's thinking that have provided the foundation for many modern theologians. He shows how philosophy and theology belong together in a movement of displacement that occurs in the turning to a post-metaphysical stance. The movement subordinates thought to language, he says, and thereby restores religious meaning through the most primordial linguistic gestures. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Examines Avicenna’s phenomenological considerations of the question of being.