Heidegger Martin (years of life - 1889-1976) is one of the founders of such a direction of philosophy as German existentialism. He was born in 1889, on September 26, in Messkirche. His father, Friedrich Heidegger, was a small craftsman.
Heidegger is preparing to become a priest
From 1903 to 1906 Heidegger Martin attended the gymnasium in Konstanz. He lives in the "House of Conrad" (Catholic boarding school) and is preparing to become a priest. Martin Heidegger continued his studies over the next three years. His biography at this time is marked by the fact that he attends the archbishop's gymnasium and seminary in Breisgau (Freiburg). On September 30, 1909, the future philosopher becomes a novice in the Jesuit monastery of Tysis, located near Feldkirch. However, already on October 13, Martin Heidegger was forced to leave home due to pain in his heart.
His brief biography continues with the fact that in the period from 1909 to 1911 he studied at the University of Freiburg, at the Faculty of Theology. He also does philosophy on his own. Martin Heidegger publishes his first articles at this time (his photo is presented below).
Spiritual crisis,new direction of study, dissertation defense
From 1911 to 1913, he experiences a spiritual crisis and decides to leave the theological faculty, continuing his studies at the University of Freiburg. Here Martin Heidegger studies philosophy, as well as the natural and human sciences. He studies Husserl's "Logical Investigations". In 1913, Heidegger Martin defended his dissertation, and after another 2 years he became an assistant professor at the University of Freiburg.
Marriage
In 1917, the philosopher marries. The Thinker marries Elfriede Petri, who studies economics in Freiburg. Heidegger's wife is the daughter of a Prussian high-ranking officer. Her religion is Evangelical Lutheran. This woman immediately believed in the high destiny and genius of her husband. She becomes his support, secretary, friend. Under the influence of his wife, Heidegger's alienation from Catholicism grows over time. In 1919, the first son, Georg, was born in the family, and a year later, Herman.
Work as a Privatdozent, lectures on ontology
From 1918 to 1923 the philosopher was Husserl's assistant and Privatdozent at the University of Freiburg. In 1919, he breaks with the system of Catholicism, and a year later, the friendship of this philosopher with Karl Jaspers begins. From 1923 to 1928 Heidegger lectured on ontology. The ontology of Martin Heidegger contributes to the growth of his popularity. He is invited to the University of Marburg as an extraordinary professor.
Work in Marburg
Heidegger's financial position is improving. However, the town itself, meagerthe library, the local air - all this irritates Martin, who would rather settle in Heidelberg. It is here that his friendship with Karl Jaspers now attracts him. Heidegger is saved by a spiritual philosophical search, as well as a hut in Todtnauberg (pictured below), located not far from his native places - woodwork, mountain air, and most importantly, the creation of a book called "Being and Time", which became a classic work of the 20th century. Heidegger's lectures are very popular with students. However, there is no mutual understanding with colleagues, except for R. Bultmann, a well-known Protestant theologian.
Heidegger - Husserl's successor at the University of Freiburg
The book "Being and Time" was published in 1927, and the next year its author became Husserl's successor in the philosophy department at his native University of Freiburg. In 1929-30. he reads a number of important reports. In 1931, Heidegger develops sympathy for the National Socialist movement. He became rector of the University of Freiburg (pictured below) in 1933. The organization of the "science camp" dates back to the same time, as well as propaganda speeches in Tübingen, Heidelberg and Leipzig.
Heidegger is in 1933 one of the relatively few well-known personalities collaborating with Nazism. Among his ideological aspirations, he finds something consonant with his mentality. Heidegger, immersed in his studies and thoughts, has no timeand a special desire to read the works of the fascist "theoreticians" and Hitler's Mein Kampf. The new movement promises the greatness and renewal of Germany. Student unions contribute to this. Heidegger, whom students have always loved, knows and takes into account their moods. The wave of national animation also carries him away. Gradually, Heidegger gets into the networks of various Hitlerite organizations located at the University of Freiburg.
In April 1934, the philosopher voluntarily leaves the post of rector. He is developing a plan to create an Academy of Associate Professors in Berlin. Martin decides to go into the shadows, since dependence on the policies of National Socialism is already weighing him down. This saves the philosopher.
War and post-war years
Over the following years, he makes a number of important reports. In 1944, Heidegger was called to dig trenches for the people's militia. In 1945 he went to Meskirch to hide and put his manuscripts in order, and then reported to the purge commission that existed at that time. Heidegger also corresponds with Sartre and is friends with Jean Beaufret. From 1946 to 1949 the ban on teaching lasts. In 1949, he made 4 reports at the Bremen Club, which were repeated in 1950 at the Academy of Fine Arts (Bavaria). Heidegger participates in various seminars, visits Greece in 1962. He died on May 26, 1978.
Two periods in Heidegger's work
Two periods are distinguished in the work of this thinker. The first lasted from 1927 until the mid-1930s. Except"Being and Time", during these years Martin Heidegger wrote the following works (in 1929): - "Kant and the Problems of Metaphysics", "On the Essence of Foundation", "What is Metaphysics?". Since 1935, the second period of his work begins. It lasts until the end of the thinker's life. The most significant works of this period are: the work "Hölderin and the Essence of Poetry" written in 1946, in 1953 - "Introduction to Metaphysics", in 1961 - "Nietzsche", in 1959 - "On the Way to Language".
Features of the first and second periods
The philosopher in the first period is trying to create a system that is a doctrine of being, considered as the basis of human existence. And in the second Heidegger interprets various philosophical ideas. He refers to the works of such authors of antiquity as Anaximander, Plato, Aristotle, as well as to the works of representatives of modern and contemporary times, such as R. M. Rilke, F. Nietzsche, F. Hölderlin. The problem of language during this period becomes for this thinker the main topic of his reasoning.
The task that Heidegger set for himself
Martin Heidegger, whose philosophy interests us, saw his task as a thinker in substantiating in a new way the doctrine of the meaning and essence of being. To achieve this goal, he sought to find means to increase the adequacy of the transmission of thoughts through language. The efforts of the philosopher were aimed at conveying the subtlest shades of meaning, making the most ofphilosophical terms.
Heidegger's main work, published in 1927 ("Being and Time"), is written in a very sophisticated language. For example, N. Berdyaev considered the language of this work "unbearable", and numerous word formations (the word "possibility" and others) - meaningless or, at least, very unsuccessful. Heidegger's language, however, like Hegel's, is characterized by a special expressiveness. Undoubtedly, these authors have their own literary style.
The impasse in which Europe found itself
Martin Heidegger strives in his writings to reveal the mindsets of the inhabitants of Europe, which can be called fundamental, giving rise to the current undesirable state of European civilization. According to the philosopher, the most important of them offered people to focus on overcoming the culture of thought, numbering 300 years. It was she who led Europe into a dead end. One should look for a way out of this impasse by listening to the whisper of being, as Martin Heidegger believed. His philosophy in this matter is not fundamentally new. Many thinkers in Europe were worried about whether humanity is moving in the right direction and whether it should change its path. However, reflecting on this, Heidegger goes further. He puts forward the hypothesis that we may be "the last ones" of a historical accomplishment coming to an end, in which everything will be completed in the "tedious order of the uniform." In his philosophy, this thinker does not put forward the task of saving the world. Its purpose is more modest. It is to understand the world we live in.
Analysis of the category of being
In philosophy, his main attention is paid to the analysis of the category of being. He fills this category with a peculiar content. Martin Heidegger, whose biography was presented above, believes that from the very beginning of philosophical Western European thought, and until now, being means the same as presence, from which the present sounds. According to the generally accepted view, the present forms a characteristic of time in opposition to the past and the future. Time defines being as presence. For Heidegger, being is the existence in time of various things, or existence.
Human existence
According to this philosopher, human existence is the main moment of comprehension of existence. He denotes human being by the special term "dasien", thereby breaking with the previous tradition of philosophy, according to which this term denotes "existing", "existent being". According to the researchers of Heidegger's work, his "dasien" means, rather, the existence of consciousness. Only man knows that he is mortal, and only he knows the temporality of his own existence. He is able, through this, to realize his being.
Getting into the world and being in it, a person experiences a state of care. This concern acts as a unity of 3 moments: "running ahead", "being in the world" and "being with the inner-world existence". Heidegger believed that to be an existential being means, first of all, to be open to the knowledge of everything that exists.
The philosopher, considering "care" as "running ahead", wants to emphasize the difference between human being and the rest of the material being in the world. Being human seems to be constantly "slipping forward". It thus contains new possibilities, fixed as a "project". That is, human being projects itself. Awareness of its movement in time is realized in the project of being. Therefore, one can consider such a being as existing in history.
Another understanding of "care" ("being with an intra-worldly existence") means a special way of relating to things. Man considers them as his companions. The structure of care unites the present, the future and the past. At the same time, the past appears in Heidegger as abandonment, the future - as a "project" that affects us, and the present - doomed to be enslaved by things. Being can, depending on the priority of this or that element, be inauthentic or authentic.
Inauthentic Being
We are dealing with non-genuine being and existence corresponding to it, when in the being of things the preponderance of the present component obscures its finiteness from the person, that is, when being is completely absorbed by the social and objective environment. According to Heidegger, inauthentic existence cannot be eliminated by the transformation of the environment. In its conditions, a person is in a "state of alienation." Heidegger calls the inauthentic mode of existence, characterized by the fact that a person is completely immersed in the world of things that dictates his behavior,existence in the impersonal Nothing. It is this that determines the everyday life of a person. Being advanced into nothing, thanks to the openness of the latter, joins the elusive being. In other words, he can comprehend beings. Being a condition for the possibility of its disclosure, Nothing refers us to the existent. Our curiosity towards him gives rise to metaphysics. It provides a way out of the existing cognizing subject.
Metaphysics as interpreted by Heidegger
It should be noted that Heidegger, thinking about metaphysics, interprets it in his own way. The interpretation proposed by Martin Heidegger is quite different from the traditional understanding. What is metaphysics, according to tradition? It has traditionally been regarded as a synonym for philosophy as a whole or some part of it, ignoring dialectics. The philosophy of modern times, according to the thinker that interests us, is a metaphysics of subjectivity. This metaphysics, moreover, is complete nihilism. What is her fate? Heidegger believed that the old metaphysics, which has become synonymous with nihilism, is completing its history in our era. In his opinion, this proves the transformation of philosophical knowledge into anthropology. Having become anthropology, philosophy itself perishes from metaphysics. Heidegger believed that Nietzsche's famous slogan "God is dead" is evidence of this. This slogan means, in fact, the rejection of religion, which is proof of the destruction of the foundations on which the most important ideals previously rested and human ideas about goals inlife.
Nihilism of modern times
Heidegger Martin notes that the disappearance of the authority of the church and God means that the place of the latter is occupied by the authority of conscience and reason. Historical progress replaces the flight into the realm of the sensible from this world. The goal of eternal bliss, which is otherworldly, is transformed into earthly happiness for many people. The spread of civilization and the creation of culture is replaced by the care of a religious cult, as Martin Heidegger notes. Technique and intelligence come to the fore. What used to be a feature of the biblical God - creativity - now characterizes human activity. The creativity of people turns into gesheft and business. This is followed by the stage of decline of culture, its decomposition. Nihilism is the sign of the New Age. Nihilism, according to Heidegger, is the truth that the former goals of all things have been shaken. This truth comes to dominate. However, with a change in attitude towards core values, nihilism becomes a pure and free task of establishing new ones. A nihilistic attitude towards values and authorities is not the same as stopping the development of culture and human thought.
Is the sequence of epochs random?
It should be taken into account, concerning the philosophy of history of Martin Heidegger, that, according to his opinion, the sequence of epochs contained by being is not accidental. She is inevitable. The thinker believed that people cannot hasten the coming of the future. However, they can see it, you just need to learn to listen to being and ask questions. And then, imperceptibly, a new world will come. Hewill, according to Heidegger, be guided by "intuition", that is, to subordinate all possible aspirations to the task of planning. Thus sub-humanity will turn into superhuman.
Two types of thinking
It is necessary to go through a long path of mistakes, delusions and knowledge in order for this transformation to occur. Understanding the nihilism that struck the European consciousness can contribute to overcoming this difficult and long path. Only a new philosophy, not connected with the "scientific philosophy" of the past, can successfully follow the study of the world by listening to it. Heidegger sees an alarming symptom in the development of scientific philosophy, which indicates that comprehending thinking is dying out in it and calculating thinking is growing. These two types of thinking are highlighted in a work called Detachment, published in 1959. Their analysis is the basis of the theory of knowledge of phenomena in the sphere of social life. According to Heidegger, calculating or calculating thinking explores and plans, calculates possibilities, while not analyzing the possible consequences of their implementation. This type of thinking is empirical. He is unable to focus on the reigning sense. Comprehending thinking breaks away from reality in its extremes. However, it, with exercises and special training, can avoid this extreme and reach the truth of being itself. According to Heidegger, this is possible thanks to phenomenology, which is the "knowledge of interpretation", as well as hermeneutics.
What is true, according to Heidegger
I covered many issues in myworks of Martin Heidegger. His ideas concern, in particular, how to establish the truth. This thinker, speaking about it, as well as about the comprehension of being in the work en titled "On the Essence of Truth", proceeds from the fact that the ordinary human mind acts, thanks to thinking, as a means of achieving it. However, what is true? Martin Heidegger briefly answered this question as follows: "It is real." The thinker notes that we call true not only what is, but, above all, our own statements about it. So how do you avoid the false and reach the truth? To achieve this, one should turn to the "binding rules". Being, according to this philosopher, something eternal and imperishable, not based on the doom of people and transience, truth is acquired by a person who enters the sphere of discovery of everything that exists. At the same time, freedom is conceived by Heidegger as "the assumption of the existence of being." It is a necessary condition for the attainment of truth. If there is no freedom, there is no truth. In knowledge, freedom is the freedom to wander and seek. Wanderings are a source of delusions, but it is natural for a person to overcome them and reveal the meaning of being, Martin Heidegger believes. The philosophy (its summary) of this thinker was considered in this article.
Heidegger's ideas as a whole are an attempt to overcome the shortcomings inherent in the old, obsolete philosophy and find ways to solve the most important problems of people's survival. This is exactly what Martin Heidegger set himself. Quotes from his works so farare very popular. The works of this author are considered fundamental in philosophy. The existentialism of Martin Heidegger, therefore, does not lose its relevance today.
