The Philosophy Book

252

WE ARE OURSELVES

THE ENTITIES

TO BE ANALYZED

MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889–1976)

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Ontology

APPROACH

Phenomenology

BEFORE

c.350 BCE Diogenes of Sinope

uses a plucked chicken to

parody Plato’s followers’ claim

that a human being is a

“featherless biped.”

1900–13 Edmund Husserl

proposes his phenomenological

theories and method in Logical

Investigations and Ideas I.

AFTER

1940s Jean-Paul Sartre

publishes Being and

Nothingness, which looks at

the connection between

“being” and human freedom.

1960 Hans-Georg Gadamer’s

Truth and Method, inspired by

Heidegger, explores the nature

of human understanding.

I

t is said that in ancient

Athens the followers of

Plato gathered one day to ask

themselves the following question:

“What is a human being?” After

a great deal of thought, they came

up with the following answer:

“a human being is a featherless

biped.” Everybody seemed content

with this definition until Diogenes

the Cynic burst into the lecture

hall with a live plucked chicken,

shouting, “Behold! I present you

with a human being.” After the

commotion had died down, the

philosophers reconvened and

refined their definition. A human

being, they said, is a featherless

biped with broad nails.