Heidegger's Being and Time: A Critical Guide

by Aaron James Wendland (Editor), Tobias Keiling (Editor)

Overview

Martin Heidegger's Being and Time, published in 1927, is widely regarded as his most important work and it has had a profound influence on twentieth-century philosophy. This Critical Guide draws on recently translated and published primary sources as well as the latest developments in Heidegger scholarship to provide a series of in-depth studies of this influential text. Twelve newly-written essays examine the unity of Being and Time; the nature of human communication; truth as a catalyst of cultural transformation; feminist approaches to Being and Time; the essence of authenticity; curiosity as an epistemic vice; the nature of rationality; realism and idealism; the ontological difference; the origin of time; the possibility of death; and the failure of the Being and Time project. The volume will be particularly valuable to students and scholars interested in phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, metaphysics, epistemology, feminism, and ethics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108853224
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/26/2025
Series:	Cambridge Critical Guides
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Aaron James Wendland is Vision Fellow in Public Philosophy at King's College, London and a Senior Research Fellow at Massey College, Toronto. He is co-editor of Wittgenstein and Heidegger (2013) and Heidegger on Technology (2019).
Tobias Keiling is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick. He is co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of the Phenomenology of Agency (2019).

Table of Contents

Introduction: the circle of understanding Aaron James Wendland and Tobias Keiling; 1. Being and time as a whole Denis McManus; 2. The trouble with the ontological difference Katharine Withy; 3. Heidegger's evenhanded approach to realism and idealism David Cerbone; 4. Discourse as communicative expression Taylor Carman; 5. On curiosity as an epistemic vice Irene McMullin; 6. Rethinking being and time as a resource for feminist philosophy Charlotte Knowles; 7. Authenticity, truth, and cultural transformation Aaron James Wendland; 8. What does authenticity do in being and time? Sacha Golob; 9. Why ask why? Retrieving reason in being and time Steven Crowell; 10. Time's origin Daniel Dahlstrom; 11. The possibility of death Mark Wrathall; 12. Heidegger on the failure of being and time Tobias Keiling; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

‘Nobody needs reminding of the significance of Heidegger’s Being and Time. Although it was an early unfinished work of his, it has always been regarded as one of the central texts of twentieth-century philosophy. Moreover, there is still much to be gleaned from it. It is therefore entirely fitting, as we approach the centenary of its publication, to issue a companion of this kind. The quality of the contributors and the range of questions that they address are more than equal to the task. They help us not only to appreciate what Heidegger is saying to us in this masterpiece, but also to appropriate it. That seems to me to be one of the hallmarks of the best history of philosophy.’ A. W. Moore, St. Hugh’s College, Oxford

‘This is a well thought out and timely collection of essays which cover all the main themes of Being and Time. The contributors are well-established specialists who, in spite of the considerable existing secondary literature on Heidegger, have managed to find new and interesting interpretations and, notably, to strike a balance between intellectual rigour and accessibility - not an easy feat given that many of Heidegger’s writings tend to resist elucidation. Because of this balance, both specialists and students will benefit from reading this volume and be rewarded with up-to-date perspectives on timeless existential themes.’ Béatrice Han-Pile, University of Essex

‘In this well-curated collection, some of our most influential Heidegger scholars engage lucidly and critically with the best that has so far been written on the central topics and concerns of Being and Time. The result is a significant enrichment of our understanding of them, and a sustained demonstration of the continued vitality of Being and Time’s philosophical legacy.’ Stephen Mulhall, New College, Oxford

‘This is an excellent collection of essays by a group of accomplished scholars on the most central issues in Being and Time: authenticity, anxiety, death, discourse, conscience, normativity, affects, understanding, truth, the status of reason, realism vs anti-realism, and time. I especially appreciate how the essays largely leave behind the analytic-continental divide, in methodology and style. They offer lucid interpretations that will be accessible to a wide philosophical readership, yet do not flatten or distort the text by translating it into terms that lose the originality of Heidegger’s thought - a perpetual risk in writing about Heidegger if one wants to avoid simply repeating Heideggerese. At the same time, the contributions highlight the ongoing significance of Being and Time by connecting Heidegger’s phenomenological reflections to current philosophical discussions on a range of important topics.’ Sonia Sikka, University of Ottawa

From the Publisher