Gadamer described the effect of the publication in 1927 of Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time: “it fell like a bombshell upon Europe.” Being and Time is indeed one of the most influential contributions to philosophy of the 20th century. It has earned Heidegger a leading status within 20th century philosophy, along with Husserl, Wittgenstein, James, Dewey, and a few others. In this course we will proceed systematically through Being and Time, seeking to understand Heidegger’s basic moves, his motivations, and the implications of his views for our philosophical concerns.
Because both the text is so difficult and this seminar will proceed at a graduate level, we will not be able to work through the entire book. So, we will focus on Division I of the text, which addresses (mainly, but not exclusively) traditional philosophical topics.
We will pay special attention to Heidegger’s attempt to overturn the subjectivistic tradition in modern philosophy and reconceive human life as “being-in-the-world.” Although we will discuss Heidegger's general conception of ontology – the first chapter of the introduction to B&T is about ontology – we will focus on his proposed revision of the ontology of “Dasein” (his technical term referring to human beings) and its philosophical implications. According to his account, a fundamental “familiarity with the world” is more basic than cognition or knowledge. We understand the world primarily through our skills and abilities for going about our business in the world, rather than through a stock of knowledge or an implicit theory. Division I of Being and Time develops this vision and explores some of its implications for traditional philosophical problems, such as skepticism, the nature of truth, realism/idealism, and the relation between common sense and science.
For more information and a syllabus for a particular semester, see the information in GU360.