What is Metaphysics?
Description:... A new translation of Martin Heidegger's major work "What is Metaphysics?", originally published in 1929. This edition contains a new afterword by the Translator, a timeline of Heidegger's life and works, a philosophic index of core Heideggerian concepts and a guide for terminology across 19th and 20th century Existentialists. This translation is designed for readability and accessibility to Heidegger's enigmatic and dense philosophy. Complex and specific philosophic terms are translated as literally as possible and academic footnotes have been removed to ensure easy reading.
This edition contains his last introduction to the third edition Heidegger published a Foreword consisting of his letter to Ernst Jünger on his sixtieth birthday (where he muses on What is Metaphysics decades later) and his Afterword and Epilogue, which he published years after the original.
This classic treatise begins by questioning the nature of metaphysics, pondering its fundamental principles and the nature of its inquiry into being. The paper critically examines the concept of being, not only in its existence, but in its essence and truth. This leads to an examination of the role of metaphysics in understanding the nature of reality and existence. The text deals with the idea of being as it is perceived within metaphysical thought, where being is often illuminated only in relation to itself, leaving other aspects of its essence unexplored. This approach highlights the limitations of metaphysical thought in fully comprehending the essence of being, suggesting a kind of inherent blindness within metaphysical philosophy to certain aspects of reality.
Heidegger comments extensively on the relationship between metaphysics and the concept of nothingness, or 'the nothing', as a crucial aspect of understanding being. It discusses how metaphysics, in its traditional form, tends to overlook the significance of nothing in its quest to define and understand being. This oversight is presented as a critical gap in metaphysical thought, as it fails to recognize the integral role that nothingness plays in the broader context of existence and reality. The discussion extends to the implications of this oversight, suggesting that a deeper understanding of metaphysics requires a reevaluation of the role and significance of nothingness within philosophical discourse. This aspect of the paper reflects a profound challenge to conventional metaphysical doctrines, urging a rethinking of fundamental philosophical concepts in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the nature of being and existence.
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