The Genesis of Heidegger's Being and Time

This book, ten years in the making, is the first factual and conceptual history of Martin Heidegger's Being and Time (1927), a key twentieth-century text whose background until now has been conspicuously absent. Through painstaking investigation of European archives and private correspondence, Theodore Kisiel provides an unbroken account of the philosopher's early development and progress toward his masterwork. Beginning with Heidegger's 1915 dissertation, Kisiel explores the philosopher's religious conversion during the bleak war years, the hermeneutic breakthrough in the war-emergency semester of 1919, the evolution of attitudes toward his phenomenological mentor, Edmund Husserl, and the shifting orientations of the three drafts of Being and Time. Discussing Heidegger's little-known reading of Aristotle, as well as his last-minute turn to Kant and to existentialist terminology, Kisiel offers a wealth of narrative detail and documentary evidence that will be an invaluable factual resource for years to come. A major event for philosophers and Heidegger specialists, the publication of Kisiel's book allows us to jettison the stale view of Being and Time as a great book "frozen in time" and instead to appreciate the erratic starts, finite high points, and tentative conclusions of what remains a challenging philosophical "path."

Table of Contents:
FIGURES KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS AND NOTATIONS INTRODUCTION PART I • THE BREAKTHROUGH TO THE TOPIC 1. Phenomenological Beginnings: The Hermeneutic Breakthrough (1915-19) Harbingers in the Habilitation KNS 1919: The Idea of Philosophy and the Problem of Worldviews SS 1919: Phenomenology and Transcendental Value-Philosophy SS 1919: On the Essence of the University and Academic Studies 2. Theo-Logical Beginnings: Toward a Phenomenology of Christianity The Religious-Philosophical Itinerary (1915-22) Religious Experience as a Phenomenological Paradigm (1917-19) The Philosophical Foundations of Medieval Mysticism (August 1919) Summary: A Religious Phenomenology? 3. The Deconstruction of Life (1919-20) WS 1919-20: Basic Problems of Phenomenology SS 1920: Phenomenology of Intuition and Expression: Theory of Philosophical Concept Formation "Critical Comments on Karl Jaspers's P.1ychology of Worldviews" 4. The Religion Courses (1920-21) WS 1920-21: Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion SS 1921: Augustine and Neoplatonism Conclusion: Two Religion Courses PART II • CONFRONTING THE ONTOLOGICAL TRADITION 5. What Did Heidegger Find in Aristotle? (1921-23) SS 1921: Phenomenological Practicum "Relating to" Aristotle's De Anima WS 1921-22: Phenomenological Interpretations to Aristotle: Introduction to Phenomenological Research: Einleitung SS 1922: Phenomenological Interpretations to Aristotle: Ontology and Logic October 1922: The Einleitung to a Book on Aristotle WS 1922-23: Seminar: "Phenomenological Interpretations to Aristotle" SS 1923: Ontology: Hermeneutics of Facticity 6. Aristotle Again: From Unconcealment to Presence (1923-24) WS 1923-24: Introduction to Phenomenological Research "Being-here and Being-true" (1923-24; December 1924) SS 1924: Ground Concepts of Aristotelian Philosophy WS 1924-25: Interpretation of Platonic Dialogues PART III • THREE DRAFTS OF BEING AND TIME 7. The Dilthey Draft: "The Concept of Time" (1924) "The Concept of Time" U uly 1924) "The Concept of Time" (November 1924) The Kassel Lectures (April 1925) 8. The Ontoeroteric Draft: History of the Concept of Time (1925) SS 1925: History of the Concept of Time WS 1925-26: Logic (Aristotle) [The Question of Truth] 9. The Final Draft: Toward a Kairology of Being Ontic Ontology The Primacy of Possibility Horizonal Schematizing: The Story Goes On EROTETIC EPILOGUE 4 Appendixes* B. Heideggers Lehrveranstaltungen I Heidegger's Teaching Activities, 1915-30 C. A Documentary Chronology of the Path to the Publication of Being and Time, 1924-27 D. Genealogical Glossary of Heidegger's Basic Terms, 1915-27 NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX OF NAMES INDEX OF SUBJECT MATTER INDEX OF GREEK TERMS INDEX OF LATIN TERMS * Note that there is no Appendix A. See Introduction for explanation.

About the Author :
Theodore Kisiel is Professor of Philosophy at Northern Illinois University and translator of Martin Heidegger's History of the Concept of Time.

Review :
"[Kisiel] surveys the conceptual laboratory in which Heidegger in those years mixed his 'blasting powder.' The English reader can thus for the first time get acquainted in depth with the philosophical 'inside story.' The German reader is likewise indebted to Kisiel for many a surprise. . . . An impressive and important book."--Dieter Thoma, "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung