•  
  •  
 

International Dialogue

International Dialogue

David A. White

Abstract

The subtitle of this work is “Being and Time as Funeral Oration.” This addition helps a reader to appreciate that the book functions on various levels: scholarly, to the extent that it offers a reading of selected details in Heidegger’s first major work; historical, in that Altman asserts with great vigor that Being and Time should be seen as a “funeral oration” for those who died in World War One; biographical, in that we read much about Heidegger’s personal actions in political and academic contexts leading to and during both WWI and a decade after the conclusion of the “Great War”; psychological, in recurring speculation aimed at what was happening causally and emotively in Heidegger’s mind when he made certain practical decisions or wrote certain texts; autobiographical, in that the reader frequently learns how the author feels concerning many of the subjects discussed or mentioned in this work; and unabashedly normative: for Altman, Heidegger, “the Nazi philosopher” (64) and “little magician of Messkirch” (198, also 283), is a “liar” (109, 269, 281), a “shirker and malingerer” (256), “in denial” (263 fn25), a “guilty sinner” (268), “shameless” (272) and the “guiltiest of men” (283)— indeed, Altman concludes that Martin Heidegger “...cannot and must no longer remain Germany’s last great philosopher” (286—the book’s final words).

Download

Share

COinS