Introduction to Heidegger

An examination of the main themes in Heidegger’s early and later thinking, focusing on the continuity and development of his thought. In the first half of the course, we will analyze the notion of authentic temporality and the contrasting inauthentic modes of being in relation to Aristotle’s distinction between phronesis, sophia, and techne, and will discuss how Heidegger posits the primacy of the practical while at the same time supplanting the traditional definition of practical philosophy. In the second half of the course, we will examine how these remain the central themes in Heidegger’s later thought, though his move away from the Dasein-orientedness of Being and Time and toward the concepts of history and community prompt Heidegger to restate these them in somewhat different terms. These points will be explored by reading Heidegger’s essays on art, truth, and technology.

Texts

Selections from the Nicomachean Ethics bks. VI and X, The Concept of Time, selections from Being and Time, “The Origin of the Work of Art,” “On the Essence of Truth,” “The Question Concerning Technology.”