Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), German philosopher, who developed existential phenomenology and is widely regarded as one of the most original philosophers of the 20th century. Born in Messkirch, Baden, on September 22, 1889, Heidegger studied Roman Catholic theology and then philosophy at the University of Freiburg, where he was a student of Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology. After periods teaching at Freiburg and Marburg, he became a professor of philosophy at Freiburg in 1928. He died in Messkirch on May 26, 1976.

Besides Husserl, Heidegger was especially influenced by the pre-Socratics of Greek philosophy, by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, and by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In his most important and influential work, Being and Time (1927; trans. 1962), Heidegger was concerned with what he considered the essential philosophical (and human) question: “What is being?”, in other words, “What is it, to be?” This could only be answered, he said, by first answering the question of what kind of being (Sein) human beings have. Heidegger called this kind of being Dasein (literally, “being-there”), existence, or more specifically “being-in-the-world”. We are, he said, self-interpreting, deciding entities practically involved along with others in a world that we have not made but that consists of potentially useful things, including cultural as well as natural objects. Thus, a person’s being is inseparable from that of other human beings and things, and once he or she sees this, the question of whether the world or other people exist is not one that can sensibly be posed. Because these objects and artefacts come to humanity from the past and are used in the present for the sake of future goals, Heidegger posited a fundamental relation between the mode of being of objects and of humanity and the structure of time.

The individual is, however, always in danger of being submerged in the world of objects, everyday routine, and the conventional, shallow behaviour of the crowd, and of losing touch with his or her own nature as a choosing entity. The feeling of dread (Angst) brings the individual out of this state of inauthenticity to a confrontation with his or her own impending death and the ultimate meaninglessness of life, but only in this confrontation can an authentic sense of being and of freedom be attained.

After 1930, Heidegger turned, in such works as An Introduction to Metaphysics (1953; trans. 1959), to the interpretation of particular Western conceptions of being. He felt that in contrast to the reverent ancient Greek conception of being, modern technological society has fostered a purely manipulative attitude that has deprived being and human life of meaning, a condition he called nihilism. Humanity has forgotten its true vocation, which is to recover the deeper understanding of being that was achieved by the early Greeks and lost by subsequent philosophers.

Heidegger’s original treatment of such themes as human finitude, death, nothingness, and authenticity led many observers to associate him with existentialism, and his work had a crucial influence on the French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. Heidegger, however, eventually repudiated existentialist interpretations of his work. His association with the Nazis in the 1930s and during World War II, which he never decisively repudiated, has led to continuing controversy around his name. Despite this, however, his influence grew throughout the 20th century. Heidegger’s work has had an important influence on thinkers such as Hans-Georg Gadamer, Herbert Marcuse, and Theodor Adorno in Germany, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida in France. It has also had an increasing impact on philosophy in English-speaking countries.