Philosophy 185

This course will be oriented by three primary texts: Being and Time (1927), ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’ (1935), and ‘The Question Concerning Technology’ (1954). We will follow and reflect on the development of Heidegger’s early effort to offer a ‘fundamental ontology’, through to his later interest in ‘poetic’ thinking.

Our reading of Being and Time will focus on the connection between the question of the meaning of being, his analysis of the human way of being, and the phenomenological method. We will also cover the first three chapters of Division II, where Heidegger offers his analysis of death, conscience, and authenticity. As we move into his later work, we will reflect on questions about the relation between art, language, and technology. More specifically, we will attend to Heidegger’s interest in works of art and ‘poetic thinking’ as affording something of a ‘saving power’ for our destitute times. Throughout the course we will also critically analyze the problematic political implications of certain tendencies in his thought.