Today, 26 May, 2006, is the 30th anniversary of the death of Martin
Heidegger (b. 26.9.1889 in Messkirch; died 26.5.1976 in Freiburg). I
will once more repeat myself, and reiterate George Steiner's comments
(made in the Times Literary Supplement, Jan. 29th, 1999) on Heidegger
and his place in 'Western thought':
"It does look as if Martin Heidegger will tower
albeit controversally and as yet enigmatically …
over much of the spectrum in philosophy in this
closing century and in the centuries to come. A
recent survey indicates that publications on Heidegger,
ranging from technical comments and monographic
investigations to biography, political debate and even
fiction, are equalling, if not exceeding, those on
Plato and Aristotle. .... Key words in his idiom ... are cited in a prodigality
of contexts. … Heidegger's role in hermeneutics, pheno-
menology, theology and historicism spills, as it were,
across the boundaries of his own writings to cast its light
and shadow on the entire landscape of existentialism, of
deconstruction, of postmodernism (these movements
being, in their source and development, extended foot-
notes to _Sein und Zeit_). .... The fascination, often tinged with revulsion, is ubiquit-
ous. It has, in turn, altered the placement of previous
metaphysical and theological traditions: there is a vivid
sense in which the pre-Socratics now come after Martin
Heidegger, as does the Plato of the _Parmenides_ and
the _Sophist_, Aristotle on being, or Thomas Aquinas
on essence. There is a Heideggerian Kant, a Schelling,
and, most emphatically, a Nietzsche and a Husserl ....
Has any Western thinker since Hegel exercised a com-
parable sovereignity . . . ? Abermals faellt ein Weg der Philosophie ins Dunkel zurueck.
[Once more one of philosophy's pathways falls back into darkness.]Chris Bruce Kiel, Germany -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
