Martin Heidegger

Timothy Clark (University of Durham)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Martin Heidegger is one of the crucial figures of twentieth-century thought, comparable in influence or effect to Ludwig Wittgenstein or Albert Einstein. His philosophical work forms a profound and deeply critical reflection on the very bases of Western thought, stretching back to the ancient Greeks, and a critique of the modern age, which he saw as the grim culmination of that thought.

The issue is “being”, a concept often dismissed in philosophy as just an empty abstraction, or the broadest generalization possible, for the least that one can say of anything is that it “is”. For Heidegger, however, the question of being is the neglected issue of Western thought, secretly determining its possibilities and its destructiveness. Being and Time (1927) opens: “Do we in our time have

1965 words

Citation: Clark, Timothy. "Martin Heidegger". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 July 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5174, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5174 Martin Heidegger 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.