How to Read Heidegger

Martin Heidegger is perhaps the most influential, yet least readily understood, philosopher of the last century. Mark Wrathall unpacks Heidegger's dense prose and guides the reader through Heidegger's early concern with the nature of human existence, to his later preoccupation with the threat that technology poses to our ability to live worthwhile lives. Wrathall pays particula...

Martin Heidegger is perhaps the most influential, yet least readily understood, philosopher of the last century. Mark Wrathall unpacks Heidegger's dense prose and guides the reader through Heidegger's early concern with the nature of human existence, to his later preoccupation with the threat that technology poses to our ability to live worthwhile lives. Wrathall pays particular attention to Heidegger's revolutionary analysis of human existence as inextricably shaped by a shared world. This leads to an exploration of Heidegger's views on the banality of public life and the possibility of authentic anticipation of death as a response to that banality. Wrathall reviews Heidegger's scandalous involvement with National Socialism, situating it in the context of Heidegger's views about the movement of world history. He also explains Heidegger's important accounts of truth, art, and language. Extracts are taken from Heidegger's magnum opus, Being and Time, as well as a variety of his best-known essays and lectures.

马克•拉索尔（Mark A. Wrathall），美国加州大学河滨分校哲学教授，曾任教于美国杨百翰大学哲学系，研究兴趣在于哲学的存在主义与现象学传统，先后撰写、主编了大量有关海德格尔思想的著作，包括《海德格尔之再考察》（Heidegger Reexamined）、《居有的海德格尔》（Appropriating Heidegger）和《海德格尔哲学指南》（A Companion to Heidegger）等。