Heidegger for Beginners

by Eric LeMay, Jennifer A. Pitts, Paul Gordon

Book Overview

The ideas of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger have been described as an intellectual time bomb, as some of the most revolutionary thought in Western history. Despite the enormous amount of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0863161723
• ISBN13: 9780863161728
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Writers & Readers Publishing
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An entertaining and informative introduction for beginners.

HEIDEGGER FOR BEGINNERS. By Eric LeMay & Jennifer A. Pitts. Illustrated by Paul Gordon. 120 pp. New York : Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc., 1994. ISBN 0-86316-172-3 (Pbk).It's difficult not to be impressed by the audacity of the Heideggerian enterprise. Here is a philosopher who, at the outset of his career, decided that Western thought had been fundamentally in error about everything for the last two thousand years, and who set out single-handedly to rectify matters by showing us, not only how we ought to be thinking, but also what things were really all about. If he was right about the West being all wrong, and there are excellent reasons for supposing that he was, he clearly becomes someone we ought to know something about. But where to begin? The Heidegger opus is MASSIVE, and consists of upwards of a hundred or so volumes, none of them easy. His German is notoriously obscure, even for native speakers of that language, and translation does little to improve it. And the works of his commentators, which in 1989 ran to over four thousand books and articles and today numbers considerably more, can often be even more obscure than Heidegger himself. Happily authors LeMay and Pitts, with the collaboration of Paul Gordon, have come to the rescue of all of those dazed and bewildered beginners out there with their extremely well-done illustrated treatment of Heidegger's basic thought. The illustrations are both effective and amusing. The thought is authentic Heidegger and, so far as it goes, accurate. The treatment, while witty, is respectful. The book concludes with some good advice about Further Reading, a basic Bibliography, and a brief anthology of key extracts : 'Martin Heidegger : In His Own Words' - On the Essence of Truth; On the Subject; On Being; On Authentic Existence; On Technology, etc. The aim, in short, seems to have been, while not overburdening the beginner with too much of Heidegger's radically different style of thinking, to give him or her enough to stimulate a desire to know more. In this I think the authors have been successful. 'Heidegger for Beginners' will be enjoyed by many who are new to Heidegger, and perhaps by at least some who are not so new. Purists, of course, will shriek that beginners would be far better off reading Steiner, or Poggeler, or Safranski, or even Heidegger himself. Of course they would! But purists have a curious tendency to forget that they too were once BEGINNERS (i.e., persons who know nothing but who would like to know something), and that prior to having become self-appointed 'experts,' they might have taken a less snooty attitude to the book under review, a book which - I repeat - is for beginners who may not yet be ready for something more substantial.My advice to beginners would be to forget about the purists (who rarely know as much as they like to pretend), and to curl up for a few good hours of fun and edification with LeMay and Pitts. You'll be amused. You'll cert

Great, Quick Survey for Difficult Ideas

Don't kid yourself and pretend you're too good to read these '... For Beginner' books. They're an ideal way to gather together and encapsulate the key ideas of the primary texts to which they refer. They read quickly, have a sense of humor, and are great little summaries of key concepts.It goes without saying that they're no substitute for the real thing. That's a given. But Heidegger is difficult. (Are as most of the philosophers that these books deal with. Anybody who says otherwise is lying -- or has read so much Heidegger that he/she has started to get brain-blur.)The great thing about this Heidegger book (and all the books in the series) is that they present the key ideas in simple terms. And bear in mind that there's nothing wrong with simplicity. Good 'simplicity' is a lot more difficult than one might think. Writing simply and thinking critically is what these books are all about -- and for these reasons, I can't recommend them enough.I'm a few years out of graduate school, so I feel myself 'out of the loop.' These books are a great way to refresh key concepts, get a good solid fix on Heidegger's so-called project, and give you space enough to dive in (or at least poke about) in 'Being and Time'.Plus, they make Heidegger's difficult ideas ('Being' 'Dasein') accessible -- and, quite frankly, that's what learning (and reading) is all about. Yeah, they're no substitute for the real thing -- and anyone who thinks otherwise is sorely mistaken -- but they're great contextualizers -- and for that reason, they're quite valuable.Besides, everybody has hang-ups about the 'difficulty' of modern philosophy. What these books do is to say: Look, the ideas *are* difficult -- don't kid yourself -- but just because they're difficult doesn't mean they should be *inaccessible*. And that's what you want a good teacher to say, right? You want someone to clomp you on the back, tell you not to worry, and assure that if you just keep at it -- keep reading, keep grappling -- you'll do fine. That's what these books do. They're the teacher clomping you on the back, telling you not to worry.

A Captivating Introduction to a Complex Topic

For my American Literature Class, I have to choose a philosopher and then find examples of his ideas throughout 20th Century Noble Prize Winning American authors' novels. Having first read about Heidegger in a World History class while studying nazi Germany, I had always been interested in his ideas. This book served as a nice and entertaining overview of his philosophy and influences. For people just looking to expand their philosophical horizons or learn more information without having to read a boring text, I suggest this and practically any book in the "For Beginner" series.

Heidegger gets easier

I read the Foucault book in this series. And I am just as pleased that my husband got this book for us to read. Being "deprived" of a deeper education in Philosophy in college, these books have allowed me to enter into the world of Philosophy with some basic understanding of what these philosophers wanted to say. For those intimidated by just picking up a volume by Heidegger or any philosopher, this is a "friendlier" way to making their intellectual volumes accessible to "novices" like myself. It's also a lot easier to read on a bus ride, or infront of a warm fireplace.

Surprisingly complete, systematic, and wonderfully entertain

Very simply, this is a wonderful introduction to Heidegger's works. As I have found with all 4 of the "for beginner" books I have read, it offered a sizable yet digestable summary of his major themes and ideas, as well as tracing his historical development. The beauty of this book from my perspective is that it puts all of his major ideas in one accesible, entertaining, and SHORT book, so the reader can grasp each idea in relation to the others. In reading Heidegger's original works, as well as his interpreters', one must wade through detailed analysis of minute points and one often loses the big picture in the process.This "for beginners" has actually given me a useful framework in which to hang my previous understandings, and in the process, given me a much firmer grasp of Heidegger's work and value.The one challenge I have with the book is that, unlike "Sartre for beignners", there is no glossary at the end of the book, which would have been enormously useful (as it was with Sartre). Fortunately, this is an easy problem to solve in future printings.Kudos to your book, and may each additional philosopher be treated with equal care and generosity.