Heidegger and Unconcealment: Truth, Language, and History

by Mark A. Wrathall

Overview

This book includes ten essays that trace the notion of unconcealment as it develops from Heidegger’s early writings to his later work, shaping his philosophy of truth, language, and history. “Unconcealment” is the idea that what entities are depends on the conditions that allow them to manifest themselves. This concept, central to Heidegger’s work, also applies to worlds in a dual sense: first, a condition of entities manifesting themselves is the existence of a world; and second, worlds themselves are disclosed. The unconcealment or disclosure of a world is the most important historical event, and Heidegger believes there have been a number of quite distinct worlds that have emerged and disappeared in history. Heidegger’s thought as a whole can profitably be seen as working out the implications of the original understanding of unconcealment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521739122
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2010
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Mark A. Wrathall received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley and is currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of How to Read Heidegger (2005) and the editor of numerous collections, including A Companion to Heidegger (2005), Religion after Metaphysics (2003) and A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism (2006).

Table of Contents

Part I. Truth and Disclosure: 1. Unconcealment; 2. The conditions of truth in Heidegger and Davidson; 3. On the 'existential positivity of our ability to be deceived'; 4. Heidegger on Plato, truth, and unconcealment: the 1931–2 lecture on The Essence of Truth; Part II. Language: 5. Social constraints on conversational content: Heidegger on Rede and Gerede; 6. Conversation, language, saying and showing; 7. The revealed word and world disclosure: Heidegger and Pascal on the phenomenology of religious faith; Part III. Historical Worlds: 8. Philosophers, thinkers, and Heidegger's place in the history of being; 9. Between the earth and the sky: Heidegger on life after the death of God; 10. Nietzsche and the metaphysics of truth.

Editorial Reviews

No one today writes about Heidegger – especially the later Heidegger – with greater clarity and depth than Mark Wrathall. In this superb collection of essays he has set the philosophical standard for anyone wishing to confront and take seriously Heidegger’s accounts of truth, language, and history.”
–Taylor Carman, Barnard College


“Heidegger and Unconcealment covers the whole span of Heidegger’s work and is a major contribution to the rapidly expanding literature on Heidegger. It is distinguished both by Wrathall’s amazing grasp of Heidegger’s still-growing collected works – comprising more than 50 volumes, many of which have not yet been translated – and by his wide-ranging, original, and illuminating discussion of the relation of Heidegger’s thought to that of other contemporary thinkers. Wrathall’s ability to put Heidegger’s abstruse formulations into clear, jargon-free English without losing their subtlety makes this book a perfect way for interested analytic philosophers to enter into Heidegger’s world.”
– Hubert Dreyfus, University of California, Berkeley


“Mark Wrathall’s book offers a sustained, penetrating, and deeply illuminating account of Heidegger’s work, early and late. It discloses a persistent concern in the deep background of his thinking that helps bring more clearly into focus the distinctness of the various phases of its development, and it does so with a rigor and clarity that will make it much harder to deny Heidegger’s relevance to issues that are of central concern to contemporary Anglo-American analytic philosophy.”
– Stephen Mulhall, Oxford University


“In this unified collection Mark Wrathall gathers Heidegger’s works around the central phenomenon of disclosure, and specifically around the disclosure of historical formations of meaning. Written with verve and precision, the book sets a high bar for future scholarship on Heidegger.”
– Thomas Sheehan, Stanford University


“Wrathall gives a wonderfully clear account of certain key notions of Heidegger’s philosophy, including truth and language. His exposition is full of illuminating examples and useful comparisons with analytic philosophers. He offers not only a very valuable addition to Heidegger commentary in English, but also a number of interesting original insights into the questions that Heidegger raises.”
– Charles Taylor, McGill University


"....Heidegger and Unconcealment: Truth, Language, and History has made an original contribution to current debates. Even where the reader does not agree with the conclusions defended, he or she should still profit from the challenge of the book’s reasoning."
—George Lazaroiu, PhD, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences


"...There is much to recommend Heidegger and Unconcealment and readers will certainly profit from the clarity with which Wrathall presents Heidegger’s ideas as well the connections he draws to important figures in analytic philosophy.... Heidegger and Unconcealment is an important accomplishment, and its two new essays are especially important reading for anyone attempting to think through Heidegger’s work on truth and language."
—Brandon Absher, Indiana University Southeast, Philosophy in Review

From the Publisher