They’re written with a prose style unlike anything you’ve ever encountered elsewhere, and at first Heidegger’s use of language seems very loose and quasi-poetic-and always almost impenetrable. But if you have scruples like that, it’s best not to open a page of Being and Time, or any of Heidegger’s other books. I had a teacher once who mockingly summed up Heidegger’s philosophy in a three-word sentence (borrowed from a rough translation from one of his works): “The nothing noths.”
But even those books can be maddeningly difficult to decipher. We’re fortunate that few of his worst personal failings show up in the philosophical works published during his lifetime. His biography is a mess, filled with more than your typical dose of ugliness. That’s because Heidegger is a frustrating and difficult figure. But there’s remarkable wisdom in his writing, although it comes at a cost. I even attended an academic Heidegger conference at one point, spending several days in eye-glazing confabulation with leading existentialists-not your typical recreation for a music writer. I’ve been studying German philosopher Martin Heidegger for decades.
0 kommentar(er)
