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Heidegger: An Introduction Paperback – 15 January 1999
by Richard Polt (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 32 ratings
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Richard Polt provides a lively and accessible introduction to one of the most influential and intellectually demanding philosophers of the modern era. Covering the entire range of Heidegger's thought, Polt skillfully communicates the essence of the philosopher, enabling readers, especially those new to his writings, to approach his works with confidence and insight. Polt presents the questions Heidegger grappled with and the positions he adopted, and also analyzes persistent points of difference between competing schools of interpretation. The book begins by exploring Heidegger's central concern, the question of Being, and his way of doing philosophy. After considering his environment, personality, and early thought, it carefully takes readers through his best-known work, Being and Time. Heidegger concludes with highlights of its subject's later thought, providing guidelines for understanding Contributions to Philosophy and other important texts. It gives special attention to the philosopher's political involvement with the Nazis in the 1930s, indicating the strengths and weaknesses of the reactions to his politics, reactions ranging from exculpation to complete condemnation.
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""Provides interesting details on Heidegger's biography and political life and surveys some of the philosopher's later writings.""—Publishers Weekly
""Polt has written a valuable introduction for beginners to Heidegger. . . Polt encourages the reader to try Heidegger's ideas on for size, and to judge them accordingly. Heidegger's philosophy comes to life in this little book. Highly recommended for all levels.""—Choice
""Polt negotiates the difficult path between introduction and over-simplification skilfully. Heidegger: An Introduction succeeds in making the philosopher's thought accessible without rendering it simplistic.""—Neil Levy, Philosophy in Review. February-December, 1999.
""This book is without a doubt the best general introduction to Heidegger ever written. Richard Polt has an uncanny ability to present Heidegger's central ideas in a straightforward way without sacrificing any of their richness or novelty. With his exceptional mastery of German, his concise formulations, and his sensitive, almost poetic style, Polt brings the philosopher's work to life. An incomparable achievement.""—Charles Guignon, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger
About the Author
Richard Polt is Professor of Philosophy at Xavier University, Cincinnati. He is the author of Heidegger: An Introduction and The Emergency of Being, both from Cornell.
Product details
Publisher : Cornell University Press; 1st edition (15 January 1999)
Language : English
Paperback : 216 pages
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4.6 out of 5 stars
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Eric Stuart Longley
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant expositionReviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 November 2006
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A marellous read, Polt explains Heidegger as best as anyone can explain this monstrous genius. Polt is not afraid to point out problems and issues that remain unresolved. As an introduction to Heidegger this book is unsurpassed, clear examples, careful explanation of Heideggers terms and references, detailed explanations of Heideggers methods along with clear written sytle make this book a real treasure - thats not to say it is not hard (not as hard as reading Heidegger unaided) but it is well worth the effort. Polt is a rarity in academe someone who can explain without ending up as convoluted or esoteric as the work he is explaining. Would recommend this book to anyone starting off who is interested in Heidegger.
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Dalakouras
5.0 out of 5 stars Search no further.Reviewed in Germany on 25 January 2016
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By far, the best and most balanced of all Heidegger introductions. Essential reading that will reveal new dimensions in the thought of this important thinker.
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Phil
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 May 2016
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Good book. Thank you
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R. Bowman
5.0 out of 5 stars Very HelpfulReviewed in the United States on 31 August 2019
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I have struggled with Heidegger for years but this book was very useful to bring forth some of Heidegger's more obscure usages. I have at times thought the translations might be lacking. I also bought 'Introduction to Metaphysics' in Polt's translation and whether it is the translation or the introduction it is easier going. That's not to say Heidegger is ever going to be easy. He commands you to think the thought which is quite a bit different than reading many philosophers' thoughts. In many ways Heidegger is like some of the Buddhists trying to talk about those things that transcend talking. At least Polt clarifies the nuances Heidegger was trying to convey in German that do not always make it to English.
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Aaron Lybrook
5.0 out of 5 stars "Heidegger: an Introduction" by Richard PoltReviewed in the United States on 1 March 2019
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This is a MUST for anyone learning to read Heidegger for the first time. What I like most about the book, besides its clarity, is that it can be read without reading "Being and Time" first. Though Professor Polt acknowledged that he wrote the book as a guide for those reading through "Being and Time," the book can be read prior OR alongside Heidegger. I truly look forward to Professor Polt's other book, "The Emergency of Being."
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Heidegger: an introduction
by Richard Polt
3.86 · Rating details · 201 ratings · 24 reviews
Richard Polt provides a lively and accessible introduction to one of the most influential and intellectually demanding philosophers of the modern era. Covering the entire range of Heidegger's thought, Polt skillfully communicates the essence of the philosopher, enabling readers, especially those new to his writings, to approach his works with confidence and insight. Polt presents the questions Heidegger grappled with and the positions he adopted, and also analyzes persistent points of difference between competing schools of interpretation. The book begins by exploring Heidegger's central concern, the question of Being, and his way of doing philosophy. After considering his environment, personality, and early thought, it carefully takes readers through his best-known work, Being and Time. Heidegger concludes with highlights of its subject's later thought, providing guidelines for understanding Contributions to Philosophy and other important texts. It gives special attention to the philosopher's political involvement with the Nazis in the 1930s, indicating the strengths and weaknesses of the reactions to his politics, reactions ranging from exculpation to complete condemnation. (less)
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Paperback, 197 pages
Published December 19th 1997 by Cornell University Press
Original TitleHeidegger: An Introduction
ISBN0801485649 (ISBN13: 9780801485640)
Edition LanguageEnglish
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Alex
Nov 12, 2015Alex rated it it was ok
Good overview on Heidegger's thinking but Polt's comments and later analyses are both short sighted and seem to entirely miss the point. He offers no real arguments to support his own thinking and the commentary comes off as useless and kind of bothersome. (less)
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Arjun Ravichandran
Aug 20, 2013Arjun Ravichandran rated it it was amazing
Great introduction to this crucial thinker, and quite possibly the only good introduction to Heidegger for the uninitiated. The author does a great job of explaining Heidegger's relevance in the general philosophical tradition (i.e. his attack on Cartesian metaphysics) but at the same time, he also explores the deeply relevant and vital issues that made him the most important philosopher of the 20th century ; questions of authenticity, of man's relationship to time and death, of our relationship to others. All of these questions are looked at in a completely new way by Heidegger, which makes a precursor to the existentialists who would later appropriate and adopt his ideas.
Heidegger can be thought of as a cross between Nietzsche and Aristotle ; he takes from the latter a careful and detailed philosophical construction, and from the former, a deeply-held concern for the future of a humanity struggling in a nihilistic epoch. To engage with Heidegger, the interested party would have to go through his magnum opus, Being and Time, but this is well nigh impossible for Heidegger expects familiarity not only with most of the Western Canon but also with his predecessors in the phenomenological tradition. This book makes Heidegger's thought accessible to the general reader, but even then, one must have at least a basic idea of what Kant had to say about Being, and what are the general aims and notions of phenomenology. This can be accomplished by a quick search through Wikipedia, and would be great for helping one to get through this book.
I can't recommend this book enough ; a lucid, and thoroughly engaging introduction to one of the darkest and most unsettling thinkers in philosophy. It's the kind of book that changes your life. (less)
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Richard Newton
Jun 02, 2016Richard Newton rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: philosophy, memoir-or-biography
Before anyone gets heated - my review rating refers to my view on this book, not to Heidegger or his philosophy. I say this because Heidegger certainly seems to bring out strong views. Some see him as one of the most brilliant philiosophers of all time. Others as sham philosopher who wrote cryptically to cover vacuous nonsense, and on top of that a Nazi! In the middle sit a lot of people who don't care and cannot be bothered to make the effort to read Heidegger. It's hard to think of another philosopher who brings out quite such a difference in views.
Before reading this book, apart from some very very high level outlines, I knew little or nothing about him. Most of my philosophy training was in classic analytical philosophy, which tends to scorn Heidegger.
The bulk of this book is about Heidegger's first book: Being and Time. It comments briefly on his earlier writing and has some biographical information as well. It is not the easiest of reads, but it is not hard either. If you are used to reading philosophy texts then you should not struggle too much.
Do I now think I understand Heidegger? No. But then my feeling is that understanding Heidegger requires a long period of serious study. However, the book has given me at least a sense of what he was interested in, some of his ideas, and a flavour for his writing. I'm not sure my life is going to be long enough or ever dull enough to read much more Heidegger, but at least I now have that sense. Given the complexity of Heidegger, his play with language and tendency to make up terminology which is hard to translate, that alone is a pretty good achievement in one book of 180 pages. (less)
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Xander
Jul 14, 2019Xander rated it liked it
Excellent introduction to the life and thoughts of Martin Heidegger. I am not familiar with the genre of introductory works, and in particular I'm unaware of any alternative intro's to Heidegger - but I can't imagine any alternative to be as lucid, concise and insightful as this book.
Polt explains the early life of Heidegger and uses half of the book to take the reader on a tour through Sein und Zeit (1927) - Heidegger's impenetrable magnum opus. One of the strengths of this introduction is the clear exposition of Heidegger's ideas - Polt only occassionaly offers his own interpretations (and clearly mentions them as such) and even more rarely offers his opinion on themes. The last third of the book explains how Heidegger, after being inaugurated in 1929, got tangled up with Nazism, and how his philosophical thoughts changed dramatically in the 1930's.
Heidegger went from setting out to answer the question of Being as a means to offer humanity a new, goal - an existential meaning - to abandoning this attempt altogether and claiming that the question of Being is unanswerable and that its meaning is "to be able to wait, a whole life long."
'Metafysican-turned-mystic' sums it up neatly.
Anyway, I can definitely recommend Polt's book to anyone trying to wrap his/her head around Heidegger's obscure and eccentric philosophy! (less)
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Michael A.
Apr 15, 2020Michael A. rated it really liked it
Intelligible introduction to Heigedder - got me eager to go straight to the source.
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Justin Evans
May 18, 2010Justin Evans rated it really liked it
Shelves: philosophy
There's plenty to dislike about Heidegger - the nazism, the self-mythologization, the rather too frequent dips into nonsense - but I most dislike the insufferable literary habits of his epigoni. Thankfully Mr Polt writes clearly if not beautifully.
Although he has a penchant for the hackneyed or tasteless which I've come to expect from Heideggerians (e.g., Heidegger's writing can be beautiful, Polt says, and gives as his example: "the clearing center itself encircles all that is, as does the nothing, which we scarcely know." Indeed. Or the original idea that we shouldn't speak well by 'policing our words,' but by "learning to respect the mysterious powers of language." That seems to me, well, a little bit like Metaphysics, treating humans as objects; in this case objects which are affected by the Great God of Language.), it never gets in the way of the point, which he makes seem important. I think maybe I *should* try to be open to Being a bit more often.
That Polt structures the book more as a commentary and less as a monograph is the major downside here; the good news, of course, is that it is very helpful as a guide to Heidegger's own writing. (less)
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Taka
Nov 25, 2017Taka rated it really liked it
Shelves: 2017, existentialism
Slightly trivializing and repetitive, but definitely user-friendly and makes Heidegger easier (but not easy) to understand. Recommended especially for beginners.
