Heidegger Martin (years of life - 1889-1976) is one of the founders of such a branch of philosophy as German existentialism. He was born in 1889, September 26, in Meskirche. His father, Friedrich Heidegger, was a small craftsman.
Heidegger prepares to become a priest
From 1903 to 1906, Heidegger Martin attended a gymnasium in Konstanz. He lives in the House of Conrad (a Catholic boarding school) and prepares to become a priest. Over the next three years, Martin Heidegger continues his studies. His biography at that time was marked by the fact that he attends the archbishop's gymnasium and seminary in Breisgau (Freiburg). On September 30, 1909, the future philosopher became a novice in the Jesuit monastery of Tisis, located near Feldkirch. However, already on October 13, Martin Heidegger was forced to leave home because of the onset of pain in his heart.
His short biography continues with the fact that he studied at the University of Freiburg in the theological faculty from 1909 to 1911. He also deals with philosophy on his own. Martin Heidegger publishes his first articles at this time (his photo is presented below).
Spiritual crisis, a new direction of study, defense of the dissertation
From 1911 to 1913 he was experiencing a spiritual crisis and decided to leave the theological faculty, continuing his studies at the University of Freiburg. Here Martin Heidegger studies philosophy, as well as the natural sciences and the humanities. He studies the work of Husserl "Logical research." In 1913, Heidegger Martin defended his thesis, and after 2 years became an assistant professor at the University of Freiburg.
Marriage
In 1917, the philosopher marries. The thinker marries Elfrida Petri, a student of economics in Freiburg. Heidegger’s wife is the daughter of a Prussian high-ranking officer. Her religion is evangelical Lutheran. This woman immediately believed in the high destiny and genius of her husband. She becomes his support, secretary, friend. Under the influence of his wife, Heidegger’s estrangement from Catholicism grows over time. In 1919, the first son, Georg, is born in the family, and a year later - German.
Work as a private assistant professor, lectures on ontology
From 1918 to 1923, the philosopher was an assistant to Husserl and a private assistant professor at the University of Freiburg. In 1919, he breaks with the system of Catholicism, and a year later the friendship of this philosopher with Karl Jaspers begins. From 1923 to 1928, Heidegger holds lectures on ontology. Martin Heidegger's ontology contributes to its popularity. He is invited to the University of Marburg as an extraordinary professor.
Work in Marburg
Heidegger's financial situation is improving. However, the town itself, the meager library, the local air - all this annoys Martin, who would settle more willingly in Heidelberg. It is here that his friendship with Karl Jaspers is now attracting him. Heidegger is saved by an inspired philosophical search, as well as a hut in Todtnauberg (pictured below), located near his native places - woodwork, mountain air, and most importantly - the creation of a book called Being and Time, which became a classic work of the 20th century. Heidegger lectures are very popular among students. However, there is no mutual understanding with colleagues, except R. Bultman, a famous Protestant theologian.
Heidegger - Husserl's successor at the University of Freiburg
The book "Genesis and Time" is published in 1927, and in the next author it becomes Husserl's successor at the Department of Philosophy at his native University of Freiburg. In the years 1929-30. he reads a number of important reports. In 1931, Heidegger appeared sympathy for the National Socialist movement. He became the rector of the University of Freiburg (pictured below) in 1933. The organization of the “science camp”, as well as propaganda speeches in Tübingen, Heidelberg and Leipzig, dates back to the same time.
Heidegger is in 1933 among the relatively few famous personalities collaborating with Nazism. Among his ideological aspirations, he finds something in tune with his mindset. Heidegger, immersed in his studies and thoughts, does not have the time and special desire to read the works of fascist “theorists” and Hitler’s Mein Kampf. The new movement promises the greatness and renewal of Germany. Student unions contribute to this. Heidegger, whom students have always loved, knows and takes into account their moods. A wave of national animation captivates him. Heidegger gradually enters the network of various Hitler organizations located at the University of Freiburg.
In April 1934, the philosopher voluntarily leaves the post of rector. He is developing a plan to create an academy of associate professors in Berlin. Martin decides to go into the shadows, because dependence on the policy of National Socialism already weighs on him. This saves the philosopher.
War and post-war years
Over the next years, he makes a number of important reports. In 1944, Heidegger was called upon to dig a trench for digging trenches. In 1945 he went to Meskirch in order to hide and tidy up his manuscripts, and then he reports to the cleaning commission that existed at that time. Heidegger also corresponds with Sartre, and is friends with Jean Beaufort. From 1946 to 1949, the ban on teaching lasted. In 1949, he makes 4 reports at the Bremen Club, which were repeated in 1950 at the Academy of Fine Arts (Bavaria). Heidegger participates in various seminars, visits Greece in 1962. He died on May 26, 1978.
Two periods in the work of Heidegger
Two periods stand out in the work of this thinker. The first lasted from 1927 to the mid-1930s. In addition to "Being and Time", in these years Martin Heidegger wrote the following (in 1929): - "Kant and the problems of metaphysics", "On the essence of foundation", "What is metaphysics?". Since 1935, the second period of his work begins. It lasts until the end of the thinker's life. The most significant works of this period are: the work “Gelderin and the essence of poetry” written in 1946, in 1953 - Introduction to Metaphysics, in 1961 - Nietzsche, in 1959 - On the Way to Language.
Features of the first and second period
The philosopher in the first period tries to create a system that represents the doctrine of being, considered as the basis of human existence. And in the second Heidegger interprets various philosophical ideas. He refers to the works of such authors of antiquity as Anaximander, Plato, Aristotle, as well as to the works of representatives of the Modern and Contemporary times, such as R. M. Rilke, F. Nietzsche, F. Gelderlin. The problem of language during this period becomes for this thinker the main topic of his reasoning.
The challenge Heidegger set for himself
Martin Heidegger, whose philosophy interests us, saw his task as a thinker in justifying in a new way the doctrine of the meaning and essence of being. To achieve this goal, he sought to find means to improve the adequacy of the transmission of thoughts through language. The efforts of the philosopher were aimed at conveying the subtlest shades of meaning, making maximum use of philosophical terms.
Heidegger's main work, published in 1927 (Genesis and Time), is written in very sophisticated language. For example, N. Berdyaev considered the language of this work "unbearable", and numerous word-formations (the word "mayorism" and others) - meaningless or, at least, very unsuccessful. Heidegger's language, however, as well as Hegelian, is characterized by special expressiveness. Undoubtedly, these authors have their own literary style.
The impasse in which Europe found itself
Martin Heidegger seeks in his writings to identify the attitudes of the inhabitants of Europe, which can be called fundamental, giving rise to the current undesirable state of European civilization. According to the philosopher, the most important of them suggested that people focus on overcoming a culture of thought dating back 300 years. It was she who brought Europe to a standstill. A way out of this impasse should be sought, listening to the whispers of being, as Martin Heidegger believed. His philosophy in this matter is not fundamentally new. Many thinkers in Europe were worried about whether humanity was moving in the right direction and whether it should change its path. However, reflecting on this, Heidegger goes further. He hypothesizes that we may be the "last of" historical achievement, approaching its end, in which everything will be completed in a "tedious uniform order." In his philosophy, this thinker does not put forward the task of saving the world. His purpose is more modest. It consists in understanding the world in which we live.
Analysis of the category of being
In philosophy, his main attention is paid to the analysis of the category of being. He fills this category with peculiar content. Martin Heidegger, whose biography was presented above, believes that being means from the very beginning of philosophical Western European thought and is still the same as the presence from which the present sounds. According to the generally accepted notion, the present forms a characteristic of time in contrasting it with the past and the future. Time is defined as being as presence. In Heidegger, being is the existence in time of various things, or existence.
Human existence
According to the opinion of this philosopher, human existence is the main moment of understanding of the existing. He designates human being with the special term "dasien", thereby breaking with the previous tradition of philosophy, according to which the term means "existing", "present being". According to the researchers of Heidegger, his "dasien" means, rather, the existence of consciousness. Only man knows that he is mortal, and only he knows the temporality of his own existence. He is able, thanks to this, to realize his being.
Getting into the world and being in it, a person experiences a state of care. This concern acts as a unity of 3 points: "running ahead", "being in the world" and "being with the inner world." Heidegger believed that being an existential being means being primarily open to the knowledge of all things.
The philosopher, considering “running ahead” “care”, wants to emphasize the difference between human being and all other material being in the world. Human being seems to constantly “slip forward”. It thus embodies new possibilities, which are fixed as a “project”. That is, a person’s being projects itself. Awareness of its movement in time is realized in the project of being. Therefore, one can consider such a being as existing in history.
Another understanding of "care" ("being with the inner world") means a special way of dealing with things. A man sees them as his companions. The structure of care combines the present, future and past. At the same time, Heidegger speaks of the past as abandonment, the future as a “project” affecting us, and the present as a doom to be enslaved by things. Being can, depending on the priority of this or that element, be non-authentic or genuine.
Unusual being
We are dealing with non-authentic being and the existence corresponding to it, when in the being of things the superiority of the component of the present obscures its finiteness from the person, that is, when being is completely absorbed in the social and objective environment. According to Heidegger, non-genuine existence cannot be eliminated by transformation of the environment. In his conditions, a person is in a "state of alienation." Heidegger calls the non-authentic mode of existence, characterized by the fact that a person is completely immersed in the world of things, dictating his behavior, by existence in an impersonal Nothing. It determines the everyday life of man. A being put forward into nothing, due to the openness of the latter, is attached to an elusive being. In other words, he can comprehend things. As a condition for the possibility of its disclosure, Nothing sends us to existence. Our curiosity gives rise to metaphysics. It provides a way beyond the existing cognitive subject.
Metaphysics in the interpretation of Heidegger
It should be noted that Heidegger, reflecting on metaphysics, interprets it in his own way. The interpretation suggested by Martin Heidegger is very different from the traditional understanding. What is metaphysics according to tradition? It was traditionally regarded as a synonym for philosophy as a whole or some part of it that ignores dialectics. The philosophy of the New Age, according to the thinker of interest to us, is a metaphysics of subjectivity. This metaphysics, moreover, is complete nihilism. What is her fate? Heidegger believed that the former metaphysics, which has become synonymous with nihilism, is completing its history in our era. In his opinion, this proves the transformation into anthropology of philosophical knowledge. Having become anthropology, philosophy itself perishes from metaphysics. Heidegger believed that evidence of this is the proclamation of Nietzsche's famous slogan "God is dead." This slogan essentially means rejection of religion, which is evidence of the destruction of the foundations on which the most important ideals rested and based on human ideas about goals in life.
The nihilism of modernity
Heidegger Martin notes that the disappearance of the authority of the church and God means that the place of the latter is occupied by the authority of conscience and reason. The historical progress is replaced by an escape into the realm of the sensual from this world. The goal of eternal bliss, which is otherworldly, is transformed into earthly happiness for many people. The spread of civilization and the creation of culture is replaced by a care for a religious cult, as Martin Heidegger notes. Technique and mind come to the fore. What used to be a feature of the biblical God - the creative principle - now characterizes human activity. Creativity of people goes into gesheft and business. After that comes the stage of decline of culture, its decomposition. Nihilism is a sign of the New Age. Nihilism, according to Heidegger, is the truth that the former goals of all things have been shaken. This truth comes to dominance. However, with a change in attitude towards basic values, nihilism becomes the pure and free task of establishing new ones. A nihilistic attitude towards values and authorities is not equal, nevertheless, to a halt in the development of culture and human thought.
Is the sequence of eras random?
It should be taken into account, referring to the philosophy of the history of Martin Heidegger, that, in his opinion, the sequence of epochs contained by being is not accidental. She is inevitable. The thinker believed that the coming of the coming people cannot accelerate. However, they can see it, you just need to learn to listen carefully to being and ask questions. And then a new world will quietly come. According to Heidegger, he will be guided by "instinct", that is, to subordinate to the planning task all possible aspirations. So subhumanity will turn into a superman.
Two types of thinking
It is necessary to go a long way of mistakes, errors and knowledge in order for this transformation to take place. Understanding the nihilism that has struck European consciousness can contribute to overcoming this difficult and long journey. Only a new philosophy unrelated to the “scientific philosophy” of the past can successfully follow the study of the world by listening to it. Heidegger sees in the development of philosophy of science an alarming symptom, indicating that conceptual thinking is dying out in it and calculus is expanding. These two types of thinking stand out in the work entitled "Detachment", published in 1959. Their analysis is the basis of the theory of cognition of phenomena in the sphere of public life. According to Heidegger, calculating or calculating thinking explores and plans, calculates the possibilities, without analyzing the possible consequences of their implementation. This type of thinking is empirical. He is not able to focus on the reign in the whole sense. Comprehensible thinking breaks away in its extremes from reality. However, it, in the presence of exercises and special training, can avoid this extreme and achieve the truth of being itself. According to Heidegger, this is possible thanks to the phenomenology, which is a "knowledge of interpretation", as well as hermeneutics.
