Heidegger's philosophic pedagogy

204 Pages·2010·0.685 MB·English

by  Heidegger, Martin, Heidegger, Martin, Ehrmantraut, Michael

Heidegger’s Philosophic Pedagogy
Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy
Series Editor: James Fieser, University of Tennessee at Martin, USA
Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy is a major monograph series from
Continuum. The series features fi rst-class scholarly research monographs across
the fi eld of Continental philosophy. Each work makes a major contribution
to the fi eld of philosophical research.
Adorno’s Concept of Life, Alastair Morgan
Badiou, Marion and St Paul, Adam Miller
Being and Number in Heidegger’s Thought, Michael Roubach
Deleuze and Guattari, Fadi Abou-Rihan
Deleuze and the Genesis of Representation, Joe Hughes
Deleuze and the Unconscious, Christian Kerslake
Deleuze, Guattari and the Production of the New, edited by Simon O’Sullivan
and Stephen Zepke
Derrida, Simon Morgan Wortham
Derrida and Disinterest, Sean Gaston
The Domestication of Derrida, Lorenzo Fabbri
Encountering Derrida, edited by Simon Morgan Wortham and Allison Weiner
Foucault’s Heidegger, Timothy Rayner
Gadamer and the Question of the Divine, Walter Lammi
Heidegger and a Metaphysics of Feeling, Sharin N. Elkholy
Heidegger and Aristotle, Michael Bowler
Heidegger and Philosophical Atheology, Peter S. Dillard
Heidegger Beyond Deconstruction, Michael Lewis
Heidegger, Politics and Climate Change, Ruth Irwin
Heidegger’s Contributions to Philosophy, Jason Powell
Heidegger’s Early Philosophy, James Luchte
Levinas and Camus, Tal Sessler
Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology, Kirk M. Besmer
Nietzsche, Nihilism and the Philosophy of the Future, edited by Jeffrey Metzger
Nietzsche’s Ethical Theory, Craig Dove
Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, edited by James Luchte
The Philosophy of Exaggeration, Alexander Garcia Düttmann
Sartre’s Phenomenology, David Reisman
Time and Becoming in Nietzsche’s Thought, Robin Small
Who’s Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari? Gregg Lambert
Žižek and Heidegger, Thomas Brockelman
Heidegger’s
Philosophic Pedagogy
Michael Ehrmantraut
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Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Abbreviations vii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Heidegger’s ‘Introduction to Philosophy’ 29
Chapter 2: Heidegger’s Students 41
Chapter 3: Student Dasein 87
Chapter 4: Philosophic Pedagogy and Historical Community 114
Epilogue 148
Notes 155
Index 195
Acknowledgements
In refl ecting upon what education means for Heidegger, I have often been
led to think of my own teachers and of how they approach the task of an
‘introduction to philosophy’. While I am grateful to many friends for the bene-
fi ts of their conversation, insight and advice, I wish to express my special thanks
to the teachers who made this study possible: Professors Eric Petrie, Susan Shell,
M. Richard Zinman and Richard Velkley. I also gratefully acknowledge the sup-
port of the Lynne and Harry Bradley Foundation and the Department of Politi-
cal Science at Boston College.
Abbreviations
References to both the original German text and to the English translation are
given when quotation follows the English translation in whole or in part.
Otherwise, translations from the German text are my own.
Works of Martin Heidegger
BP Basic Problems of Phenomenology. Trans. A. Hofstadter. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1982.
BQ Basic Questions of Philosophy. Trans. R. Rojcewicz and A. Schuwer.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
BT Being and Time. Trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson. New York:
Harper and Row, 1962.
CP Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning). Trans. P. Emad and
K. Maly. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
EdP Europa und die deutsche Philosophie (1936 lecture), in Europa und die
Philosophie. Ed. H. Gander. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1993.
EM Einführung in die Metaphysik. Fifth edition. Tübingen: Niemeyer,
1987.
FCM Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude. Trans.
W. McNeill and N. Walker. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
G9 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 9: Wegmarken. Ed. F. W. von Herrmann.
Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1976.
G13 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 13: Aus der Erfahrung des Denkens. Ed.
H. Heidegger. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 2002.
G16 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 16: Reden und andere Zeugnisse eines Lebensweges.
Ed. H. Heidegger. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 2000.
G26 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 26: Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Logik (SS
1928). Ed. K. Held. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1978.
G27 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 27: Einleitung in die Philosophie (WS 1928/29).
Eds. O. Saame and I. Saame-Speidel. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1996.
G28 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 28. Der deutsche Idealismus (Fichte, Schelling, Hegel)
und die philosophische Problemlage der Gegenwart (SS 1929). Ed.
C. Strube. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1997.
viii Abbreviations
G29/30 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 29/30. Die Grundbegriffe der Metaphysik: Welt—
Endlichkeit—Einsamkeit (WS 1929/30). Ed. F. W. von Herrmann.
Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1983.
G32 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 32: Hegels Phänomenologie des Geistes (WS
1930/31). Ed. I. Goerland. Frankfurt: Klostermann 1980.
G34 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 34: Vom Wesen der Wahrheit (WS 1931/32).
Ed. H. Moerchen. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1988.
G38 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 38: Logik als die Frage nach dem Wesen der Wahrheit
(SS 1934). Ed. G. Suebold. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1998.
G39 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 38: Hölderlins Hymnen: ‘Germanien’ und ‘Der
Rhein’ (WS 1934/35). Ed. S. Ziegler. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1980.
G45 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 45: Grundfragen der Philosophie: Ausgewählte
‘Probleme’ der ‘Logik’ (WS 1937/38). Ed. F. W. von Herrmann.
Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1984.
G53 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 53: Hölderlins Hymnen ‘Der Ister’ (SS 1942).
Ed. C. Ochwadt, 1982. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1989.
G54 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 54: Parmenides. Ed. M. S. Rings. Frankfurt:
Klostermann, 1982.
G65 Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 65: Beiträge zur Philosophie. Ed. F. W. von
Herrmann. Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1989.
Hw Holzwege. Sixth edition. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1980.
KPM Kant und das Problem der Metaphysik. Fourth Edition. Frankfurt:
Klostermann, 1973.
MFL The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic. Trans. M. Heim. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1984.
Ni Nietzsche, Vol. 1. Pfullingen: Neske, 1961.
Nii Nietzsche, Vol. 2. Pfullingen: Neske, 1961.
PIK Phenomenological Interpretation of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Trans.
P. Emad and K. Maly. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.
PS Plato’s Sophist. Trans. P. Emad and K. Maly. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1997.
SG Der Satz vom Grund. Stuttgart: Neske, 1957.
SU Die Selbstbehauptung der deutschen Universität. Das Rektorat 1933/34.
Frankfurt: Klostermann, 1983.
SZ Sein und Zeit. Sixteenth edition. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1986.
VA Vorträge und Aussätze. Seventh edition. Stuttgart: Neske, 1994.
Introduction
Near the conclusion of Being and Time, Martin Heidegger quotes a series of
passages from Count Yorck’s correspondence with Wilhelm Dilthey in order to
exhibit how the insights and tendency of Yorck’s thought anticipate in impor-
tant respects the thinking of Being and Time. In particular, according to
Heidegger, Yorck not only approaches one of the central discoveries presented
in Being and Time – that of the ‘historicality of Dasein’ – but moreover, he ‘did
not hesitate to draw the fi nal conclusion from this insight’. Heidegger then
presents a selection of remarks from Yorck’s letters in which this ‘fi nal conclu-
sion’ is expressed. The common theme of these remarks concerns the manner
in which philosophy, as a way of ‘living’ is itself inherently historical. Among the
comments upon the meaning of philosophy which are quoted by Heidegger,
the following statement stands out:
That science can become practical is indeed now the authentic justifi cation
of all science. But the mathematical praxis is not the only one. The practical
aim of our standpoint is one that is pedagogical in the widest and deepest sense of the
word. It is the soul of all true philosophy and the truth of Plato and Aristotle.
(SZ 402; BT 402; emphasis added)
Through citation, Heidegger adopts Yorck’s statement as his own and thereby
points out an important characteristic of ‘the practical aim’ of his own philo-
sophical ‘standpoint’.
The following study is an exploration of the thesis that philosophy, for
Heidegger, is inherently ‘pedagogical in the widest and deepest sense of the
word’. The main elements of this theme can be outlined in a provisional way
through reference to how, according to Being and Time, philosophy can be
understood as a mode of ‘praxis’ and, in addition, through consideration of
how the practice of philosophy may itself require a kind of ‘pedagogy’.
The Practice of Philosophy
In Being and Time, philosophy is understood with regard to its fundamental
theme as the inquiry into Being. Undertaking this inquiry presupposes that