Heidegger And The Quest For Truth

Truth and myth are predominant themes in Martin Heidegger's thinking. Heidegger showed that ancient Greek understanding of truth as aletheia («unconcealment») can teach us about learning from the wisdom that is found in myths and can also enhance human existence. This book describes some of Heidegger's major insights concerning truth as aletheia and their implications. It also shows how Heidegger's thinking on truth discloses the shallowness and the disrespect for truth in the writings of four well-known postmodernist writers: Lyotard, MacIntyre, Rorty, and Derrida.

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.

The siren of certainty calls...is there a truth, somewhere, which is so certain that no reasonable individual could doubt its veracity? The excitement of this quest comes from the scent of freedom. Both Heidegger and Sankara erect a «metaphysics of experience» upon the pillars of BEING, TRUTH, and FREEDOM. The comparative study of religion and philosophy will find that these two unique thinkers resonate together in an uncanny way even if they eventually come to different conclusions.

A “well-crafted and careful rendering of an important and demanding volume” covering the philosopher’s views on language, life, and politics (Andrew Mitchell, Emory University). In these lectures, delivered in 1933-1934 while he was Rector of the University of Freiburg and an active supporter of the National Socialist regime, Martin Heidegger addresses the history of metaphysics and the notion of truth from Heraclitus to Hegel. First published in German in 2001, these two lecture courses offer a sustained encounter with Heidegger’s thinking during a period when he attempted to give expression to his highest ambitions for a philosophy engaged with politics and the world. While the lectures are strongly nationalistic, they also attack theories of racial supremacy in an attempt to stake out a distinctively Heideggerian understanding of what it means to be a people. This careful translation offers valuable insight into Heidegger’s views on language, truth, animality, and life, as well as his political thought and activity.

This book includes ten essays that trace the notion of unconcealment as it develops from Heidegger's early writings to his later work, shaping his philosophy of truth, language and history. 'Unconcealment' is the idea that what entities are depends on the conditions that allow them to manifest themselves. This concept, central to Heidegger's work, also applies to worlds in a dual sense: first, a condition of entities manifesting themselves is the existence of a world; and second, worlds themselves are disclosed. The unconcealment or disclosure of a world is the most important historical event, and Heidegger believes there have been a number of quite distinct worlds that have emerged and disappeared in history. Heidegger's thought as a whole can profitably be seen as working out the implications of the original understanding of unconcealment.

This major new study of Heidegger is the first to examine in detail the concept of existential truth that Heidegger developed in the 1920s. Daniel Dahlstrom offers a critical focus on the genesis, nature, and viability of Heidegger's radical reconceptualization. The book has several distinctive and innovative features. First, it is the only study that attempts to understand the logical dimension of Heidegger's thought in its historical context. Second, no other book-length treatment explores the breadth and depth of Heidegger's confrontation with Husserl, his erstwhile mentor. Third, the book demonstrates that Heidegger's deconstruction of Western thinking occurs on three interconnected fronts: truth, being, and time.

Martin Heidegger's 1925-26 lectures on truth and time provided much of the basis for his work, "Being and Time". This title is central to Heidegger's overall project of reinterpreting Western thought in terms of time and truth. It shows the degree to which Aristotle underlies Heidegger's hermeneutical theory of meaning.