Heidegger's Being and Time: An Introduction

A Good Introduction To Being And Time

Marin Heidegger's "Being and Time" (1927) is one of the lasting works of 20th Century philosophy. The work is long, formidable and, by any standard, difficult to read. Heidegger is philosophizing against, taking issue with, much of the Western philosophical tradition. Some understanding of philosophy thus is needed in order to understand what Heidegger tries to do in "Being and Time." The writing is difficult, indeed torturous, as Heidegger acknowledges. Throughout the book, Heidegger invents his own new vocabulary and uses common words in highly unusual ways. There are two translations of "Being and Time" in English, the earlier and standard translation by Macquarrie and Robinson, and a more recent translation by Joan Stambaugh.

Readers struggling with "Being and Time" frequently turn to one or more of the many commentaries the book has provoked. The commentaries suggest both the work's difficulty and its significance. I recently reread "Being and Time" and followed my reading immediately with the reading of a recent commentary, Paul Gorner's "Being and Time an Introduction" (2007) as a supplement to my reading of Heidegger's own text. I want to comment on Gorner's guide to Being and Time rather than on Being and Time itself.

Paul Gorner is Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Aberdeen, and a specialist in German thought. His book is part of a series called "Cambridge Introductions to Key Philosophical Texts." The series also includes introductions to seminal philosophical works such as Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason", Wittgenstein's "Tractatus" and Wittgenstein's "Philosophical Investigations" and Spinoza's "Ethics". Each of these works is written in a difficult nearly impenetrable style with unusual terminology. Philosophical expression is hard, and it worth remembering that Heidegger is not alone in the difficulty of his work.

Other philosophers, beyond those I have named strive for clarity in thought and expression. Gorner seems to be of the latter mind. He is a sympathetic, informed reader of Heidegger who works to explain the text. He does not intrude himself or his own views unduly, but he frequently raises questions and difficulties in Heidegger's approach. His questions are valuable in forcing the reader to consider the text and not simply accept uncritically a difficult presentation. Gorner writes a clear and lucid English. This will come as a relief to most English readers after even a small exposure to Heidegger. Gorner struggles to explain Heidegger's thought in terms that are less obscure than the original. It is a tribute to Gorner that his own analysis, as lucid as he tries to make it, still makes for difficult reading.It is unavoidable in any discussion of "Being and Time."

Gorner's book consists of a short introduction and overview followed by seven chapters of exposition and a concluding chapter which examines Heidegger's famous turn or "kehre" after he wrote "Being and Time". Biographical details are sparse. Gorner gives little consideration to what many readers have seen as the political dimensions of Heidegger's thought. His introductory overview of "Being and Time" (pp. 3-12) is one of the best aspects of the book and will be valuable for those readers with no prior involvement with Heidegger's own text.

Gorner does not offer a section-by-section commentary. Instead, he takes key themes of "Being and Time" and tries to explain them and their interrelationships. Thus he opens with a good treatment of Heidegger's theme: the "Question of Being" and with Heidegger's effort to convince his readers that this question matters and that its significance has been lost. Subsequent chapters deal with "Being-in-the world", "Being-with", "Being-in", "Truth", "Authenticity", and "Time and Being" -- all of which are themes that pervade the book. The subheading in the chapter link the various discussions together and show interrelationships. Thus, the chapter on "Authenticity" follows-through with considerations of "The one (or They)", "Falling", "Dasein in in the Untruth", "Angst", "Death", "Conscience and Guilt", "Resoluteness", and Heidegger's "Existentialism".

In the earlier chapters, Gorner tries to show the reader how Heidegger attempted to disolve problems that have plagued traditional philosophy, such as solipsism, the claimed difficulty of "proving" the existence of the external world" and the nature of other minds. Heidegger does try to show that these issues are essentially pseudo-problems. In this respect, he is similar to many English-speaking philosophers. But I think Gorner loses something of Heidegger's full programme.

Several aspects of Gorner's book are particularly good. First, he offers a good exposition of Heidegger as a phenomenologist and of his use of the phenomenological method developed by Heidegger's mentor, Edmund Husserl. Gorner has an understanding of Husserl's thought and explains well how Heidegger both followed and rejected his teachings. It is important to understand the phenomenological method as Heidegger uses it in order to consider how to evaluate the claims he makes in "Being and Time." Gorner's emphasis on phenomenology and on Husserl is salutary.

Gorner also offers an important comparison between Heidegger's theme of "Being-in-the-world" and the "private language" argument developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein (pp.66-67). Wittgenstein developed an argument to attempt to rebut solipsism and skepticism by claiming that such arguments presupposed that there could be a language used and understood by a single private subject. Wittgenstein argued that there could be no private language of this type. Gorner discusses this argument as it affects Heidegger's project. I think Wittgenstein and Heidegger may be closer than Gorner allows.

Finally, Gorner offers a perceptive discussion of Heidegger's relationship to "Existentialism." (pp. 145-152) a term Heidegger himself rejected. Gorner points out that much of "Being and Time", particularly in its themes of authenticity, guilt, anxiety, death, reflects existentialist concerns. But Gorner also stresses the broader character of Heidegger's thought, in its exploration and redirection of metaphysics. Heidegger changed the character of philosophy while paradoxically affirming the significance of the philosophic quest.

Gorner's introduction does not, and does not claim to, capture the complexity and depth of "Being and Time". For readers struggling with the book and wanting a guide, it is an excellent source.

Robin Friedman