Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger's Being in Time, Division I / Edition 1

by Hubert L. Dreyfus

Overview

Being-in-the-World is a guide to one of the most influential philosophical works of this century: Division I of Part One of Being and Time, where Martin Heidegger works out an original and powerful account of being-in-the-world which he then uses to ground a profound critique of traditional ontology and epistemology. Hubert Dreyfus's commentary opens the way for a new appreciation of this difficult philosopher, revealing a rigorous and illuminating vocabulary that is indispensable for talking about the phenomenon of world.

The publication of Being and Time in 1927 turned the academic world on its head. Since then it has become a touchstone for philosophers as diverse as Marcuse, Sartre, Foucault, and Derrida who seek an alternative to the rationalist Cartesian tradition of western philosophy. But Heidegger's text is notoriously dense, and his language seems to consist of unnecessarily barbaric neologisms; to the neophyte and even to those schooled in Heidegger thought, the result is often incomprehensible.

Dreyfus's approach to this daunting book is straightforward and pragmatic. He explains the text by frequent examples drawn from everyday life, and he skillfully relates Heidegger's ideas to the questions about being and mind that have preoccupied a generation of cognitive scientists and philosophers of mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262540568
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	12/14/1990
Series:	A Bradford Book
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	909,812
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.98(d)
Lexile:	1420L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Hubert L. Dreyfus is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley.

What People are Saying About This

Bryan Magee

Hubert Dreyfus is without equal at explaining Heidegger's philosophy without distorting it. If only Heidegger had made himself as clear as Dreyfus makes him he would long ago have established himself in the English-speaking world as one of the greatest philosopher's of the twentieth century.

Endorsement

Hubert Dreyfus is without equal at explaining Heidegger's philosophy without distorting it. If only Heidegger had made himself as clear as Dreyfus makes him he would long ago have established himself in the English-speaking world as one of the greatest philosopher's of the twentieth century.—Bryan Magee, Hon. Senior Research Fellow in the History of Ideas, King's College, University of London

From the Publisher

"Mainstream philosophers... have never come up with a satisfactory account that translates Heidegger into their own language.... That should change very soon, with the publication this year of Hubert Dreyfus's Being-in-the-world.

The fruit of 25 years of teaching the subject at Berkeley, it is undoubt, edly one of the clearest accounts of Heidegger's thought to date." Anthony Gottlieb, New York Times Book Review

Charles Taylor

The philosophical world has been waiting for this book for a long time. It is an indispensable book for anyone who wants to understand Being-in-Time, one of the great path-breaking works of 20th century philosophy. Dreyfus's commentary, unsurpassed for its philosphical grasp and clarity of detail, has made Heidegger accessible to the English-speaking reader as never before.

Editorial Reviews

Mainstream philosophers...have never come up with a satisfactory account that translates Heidegger into their own language...That should change very soon, with the publication this year of Hubert Dreyfus's Being-in-the-World. The fruit of 25 years of teaching the subject at Berkeley, it is undoubtedly one of the clearest accounts of Heidegger's thought to date.—Anthony Gottlieb, New York Times Book Review—

From the Publisher

Mainstream philosophers...have never come up with a satisfactory account that translates Heidegger into their own language...That should change very soon, with the publication this year of Hubert Dreyfus's Being-in-the-World. The fruit of 25 years of teaching the subject at Berkeley, it is undoubtedly one of the clearest accounts of Heidegger's thought to date.

—Anthony Gottlieb, New York Times Book Review

Reviews

Mainstream philosophers...have never come up with a satisfactory account that translates Heidegger into their own language...That should change very soon, with the publication this year of Hubert Dreyfus's Being-in-the-World. The fruit of 25 years of teaching the subject at Berkeley, it is undoubtedly one of the clearest accounts of Heidegger's thought to date.

New York Times Book Review - Anthony Gottlieb