ABSTRACT

"The Philosophy of Heidegger" is a readable and reliable overview of Heidegger's thought, suitable both for beginners and advanced students. A striking and refreshing feature of the work is how free it is from the jargon and standard idioms of academic philosophical writing. Written in straightforward English, with many illustrations and concrete examples, this book provides a very accessible introduction to such key Heideggerian notions as in/authenticity, falling, throwness, moods, temporality, earth, world, enframing, etc. Organized under clear, no-nonsense headings, Watt's exposition avoids complicated involvement with the secondary literature, or with wider philosophical debates, which gives his writing a fresh, immediate character. Ranging widely across Heidegger's numerous writings, this book displays an impressively thorough knowledge of his corpus, navigating the difficult relationship between earlier and later Heidegger texts, and giving the reader a strong sense of the basic motives and overall continuity of Heidegger's thought.

chapter 1|12 pages

Heidegger's life

chapter 2|26 pages

The meaning of life: the question of Being

chapter 3|42 pages

The central ideas in Being and Time

chapter 4|14 pages

Conscience, guilt and authenticity

chapter 5|21 pages

Being-towards-death

chapter 6|25 pages

Dasein's primordial temporality

chapter 7|34 pages

The “truth of alētheia” and language

chapter 8|23 pages

Heidegger on poetry, poets and Hölderlin

chapter 9|19 pages

Heidegger on art

chapter 10|13 pages

Heidegger on technology

chapter 11|15 pages

Tao, Zen and Heidegger

chapter 12|18 pages

Heidegger's politics