Heidegger, << HY dehg uhr, >> Martin (1889-1976), was a German philosopher. His ideas have exerted a wide influence on philosophy, the theory of literature and art, and psychiatry.
Heidegger’s central philosophical question is “What is Being?” He was not asking the usual questions about the physical makeup of things that exist, or about what properties they possess. Instead, he wanted to understand their very is-ness or being—what it is for anything to exist rather than not to exist. Heidegger claimed that this is a difficult but important question that other philosophers had ignored.
Heidegger approached his investigation of the general nature of all being through the study of human being. The being of humans is, he argued, essentially a “being there,” or “being-in-the-world.” We are situated in a world with which we have to cope, a world of which we have some sort of awareness, and which we can question. We do not choose to enter this world, but find ourselves “thrown” into it.
Heidegger argued that philosophers have traditionally misunderstood the relation of human beings to the world in which they find themselves. Philosophers tend to focus primarily upon our attempts to know this world. However, we do not deal with the world exclusively or even primarily by trying to know it. We instead interact with the world in complex ways that require action and “concern” more than knowledge.
Heidegger was preoccupied with the nature of human existence. He emphasized its more dreary aspects, such as alienation, death, and anxiety. He insisted upon the difficult task of living authentically and with commitment. Because of these concerns, he has often been considered an existentialist (see Existentialism ). These investigations culminated in Heidegger’s major work, Being and Time (1927).
In the 1930’s, Heidegger turned even more radically away from what he thought was the mistaken direction of most traditional philosophy. He came to believe that a better understanding of being had been reached by certain poets, especially Friedrich Hoderlin. He also included a few philosophers on the margins of the tradition, such as Friedrich Nietzsche and the pre-Socratic philosophers of ancient Greece. In interpreting the texts of these figures, he claimed to uncover deep and original meanings of which even the authors themselves may have been unaware. His interpretations often involve wordplays and etymologies (the histories of words).
Heidegger was born on Sept. 26, 1889, near the university town of Freiburg, Germany. There he later studied, taught, and became rector of the university. His public support of the Nazis has made him controversial. He died on May 26, 1976.
