INTRODUCTION 1099
question of Being in stark terms: “Why is there anything at all, rather than noth-
ing?” This might seem an odd question to us, but it is odd (asserts Heidegger)
only because we have lost our original amazement in the very presence of Being
itself. Following a lengthy discussion of this issue, Heidegger asks the further
question, “How is it with being?” Not well at all, he concludes. Heidegger argues
that modern “technological frenzy” has led us to the brink of disaster because
it induces the awful forgetfulness of Being. But Heidegger does not end with
pessimism. It is possible, he concludes,
to repeat and retrievethe inception of our historical-spiritual Dasein, in order to
transform it into the other inception....The point is to restore the historical Dasein
of human beings...back to the power of Being that is to be opened up originally.Heidegger has had more than his share of critics. Analytic philosophers have
particularly criticized his use of language. One such philosopher concluded that
“Heidegger’s account of human life, where it is not vacuous, is transparently
false.”* However, despite the criticisms of his life and thought, Heidegger has
profoundly affected philosophy—especially in the field he originated: philosoph-
ical hermeneutics. Further, his insights have been developed in psychoanalysis
and literary theory and in phenomenology and theology, and they continue to
shape contemporary views.
For a biography of Heidegger, see Rudiger Safranski,Martin Heidegger:
Between Good and Evil,translated by Ewald Osers (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1999). General introductions to Heidegger’s thought include
Marjorie Grene,Martin Heidegger(New York: Hillary House, 1957); W.J.
Richardson,Heidegger: Through Phenomenology to Thought(New York:
Humanities Press, 1963); J.A. Kockelman,Heidegger: A First Introduction to
His Philosophy,translated by T. Schrynemakers (Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne
University Press, 1965); J.L. Mehta,Martin Heidegger: The Way and the Vision
(Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1976); George Steiner,Martin Heidegger
(New York: Viking Press, 1978); Michael Inwood,Heidegger(Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1997); Herman Philipse,Heidegger’s Philosophy of Being: A
Critical Interpretation(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999); Richard
Polt,Heidegger: An Introduction(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999);
Jonathan Ree, Heidegger (London: Routledge, 1999); George Pattison,
Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to the Later Heidegger(London: Routledge,
2000); Daniel O. Dahlstrom, Heidegger’s Concept of Truth (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2001); and Adam Sharr, Heidegger’s Hut
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006). For criticism of Heidegger’s thought, see
Walter Kaufmann,Discovering the Mind, Volume II: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and
Buber(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980); Hans-Georg Gadamer,Heidegger’s
Ways,translated by John W. Stanley (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1994); Joanna
Hodge,Heidegger and Ethics(Oxford: Routledge, 1995); and S.J. McGrath,
*Alasdair MacIntyre, “Existentialism,” in D.J. O’Connor,A Critical History of Western
Philosophy(New York: The Free Press, 1964), p. 518.