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Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger

22 books

philosophy

What they argue

Martin Heidegger is a philosopher who investigates the fundamental question of Being and the history of Western philosophy. He works in the territory of ontology, critiquing the 'forgetfulness of Being' and the 'subjective turn' that treats the world as a resource for human mastery.

  1. The Difference Between Being and Entities

    Being is the horizon of intelligibility, while entities are the things that appear within that horizon. Confusing the two leads to a 'forgetfulness of Being' where we treat Being as a property of objects rather than the condition of their appearance.

    From Contributions to Philosophy (book)

  2. The Essence of Technology

    The essence of technology is not found in tools or machines, but in the way those tools reveal the world to us. It is a 'destining' of the human spirit that views the world as a 'standing reserve' to be manipulated.

    From The question concerning technology, and other essays (book)

  3. The Critique of Subjectivity

    The 'Subject' or the individual 'I' is a historical construct rather than a foundational truth. Treating thinking as a private, internal activity of a 'Self' obscures the actual nature of thinking as an ontological event.

    From Was heisst Denken? (book)

    • Says much the same Alan Watts — The Illusion of the "Self" as a SubstanceThe "I" is not a permanent inhabitant of the body but a linguistic shorthand for a complex flow of memories, sensations, and habits. There is no "me" behind our…Talking Zen
    • A related idea Bruce Fink — The Structural SubjectThe 'subject' is not a stable core of identity or a 'Cartesian' self sitting inside the head. Instead, the subject is a structural effect of the gap between unconscious…The Lacanian Subject

  4. The Standing Reserve

    This is the tendency to view everything in the world, including humans, as a resource to be stored, measured, and used for a future purpose. This technological mindset causes us to lose the ability to see the world as it is.

    From Gelassenheit (book)

  5. The Instrumental View of Language

    Language is not a medium of communication between subjects who already exist, but the ontological clearing in which the world first becomes manifest. Treating language as a tool to convey information misses the miracle of human existence.

    From Unterwegs zur Sprache (book)

    • A related idea Terry Eagleton — The Sociality of LanguageLanguage is not a neutral tool for communication; it is the very fabric of social reality. We do not 'have' a world and then describe it; we inhabit a world built of…Shakespeare and society
    • A related idea Noam Chomsky — Language as a Mental OrganHuman language is an internal biological organ of the mind governed by a recursive system of rules rather than a collection of habits learned from the environment. This…Language and mind

  6. The Analytic of Difference

    To understand how an entity exists, one should not look for its essence, but instead analyze its Difference. This involves identifying what a thing is not to understand how it is held together within the temporal unfolding of Being.

    From Identität und Differenz (book)

  7. The Calculative Imperative

    Modern thought is dominated by a mode where everything is viewed in terms of its utility, efficiency, and 'use-value.' This prevents philosophy from fulfilling its original purpose: to open up the mystery of Being itself.

    From The end of philosophy (book)

Every idea names the summary it came from. Written by a local model from this mind’s own work, never from memory.

Books 17

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