Our Next 'Off the Board' Walkthrough Text
Heidegger's 1929 "What is Metaphysics?" (and its 1949 "Introduction" and its 1943 "Postscript")
Going Off the Board
I’ve been quite torn about the poll results and decided to go off the board.
In a previous letter, I asked readers to participate in a poll about our next philosophy walkthrough text. I was surprised by the result. The most voted for option was another Heidegger text, “Plato’s Doctrine of Truth.”
After the poll closed, I reconsidered.
I read through “Plato’s Doctrine” again, to prepare to begin writing about it. But as I did so, I decided it would not work well for a walkthroughs format—at least for now.
There are several things about it that make it a difficult text to present in this format, at this point in time:
it is really about two texts—Plato’s cave analogy and Heidegger’s reading of it;
it is full of a lot of untranslated and untransliterated Greek characters, words, and phrases;
and it is a quite advanced, technical, and circuitous piece of writing.
I decided that in order to do “Plato’s Doctrine” effectively, I would want to have laid some previous groundwork for it.
So while trying to respect the poll results that called for another Heidegger text, I've decided on a different one.
Heidegger’s 1929 “What is Metaphysics?”
I've decided that we will do Heidegger's 1929 “What is Metaphysics?”, one of his most famous lectures.
Many scholars distinguish between an early Heidegger (pre-1930s) and a later Heidegger (post-1930s). His 1955 “Memorial Address” already offered us a good example of his later thought. “What is Metaphysics?” allow us to see an example of his early form of philosophy. To this day, many prefer Heidegger’s early work over his later work because it is more straightforwardly philosophical and less ‘poetic.’
Although one of his most influential pieces, “What is Metaphysics?” is also one of his most infamous and misunderstood.
Because of this, Heidegger had reason to return to it, reflect upon it, and write about it several times throughout the course of his career. And so this is why we will also be reading his two other companion pieces, the 1949 “Introduction to ‘What is Metaphysics?’” and the 1943 “Postscript to ‘What is Metaphysics?””.
In fact, we will be reading this series of texts backwards, from 1949, to 1943, to 1927.
I am one of those who thinks that Heidegger's later work is actually a more faithful expression of what he was trying to convey all along. It’s actually through his later work that we gain the correct interpretive keys to understand his earlier work. The goal then is to read “What is Metaphysics?” as a phenomenological descent into a deep experience of presence—via the nothing (das Nichts) and the attunement (Stimmung) of anxiety (Angst).
“What is Metaphysics?” will also allow me to expand upon some key ideas that we glossed over in “Memorial Address.”
Foremost amongst these is Heidegger's conception of affect, mood, or attunement. His work contrasts with a predominant steam of Western philosophy that has sought to subordinate the passions to reason. “What is Metaphysics?” places affect, mood, and attunement at the heart of the philosophical endeavour.
In fact, for Heidegger in general—both early and late, philosophy is really a thoughtful response to first being affected by the world.
How to Access the Text
“What is Metaphysics?” is widely available both for purchase and free online.
But there are various publications and versions. And the “Introduction” and “Postscript” are not as widely accessible—at least for free.
I will be using the versions of all three texts found in Heidegger’s collection Pathmarks.
But all three texts are also available for free ink a translation by Miles Groth (available here).
I will primarily refer to the more widely used translations from Pathmarks. But the Groth translation is not so wildly different that you wouldn’t be able to follow along with it as well.
We will begin diving into 1949’s “Introduction to ‘What is Metaphysics?’” next week.
Until then.
Image credits:
Header image source photo by Linus Nyland.