Martin Heidegger, the Notion of Being. A Reconstruction and Reversal (PHEN22)

Course Overview

This course offers an in-depth study of Martin Heidegger’s fundamental question: What is the meaning of Being? Beginning with the classical metaphysical question — “Why is there something rather than nothing?” — we examine Heidegger’s lifelong effort to retrieve what he called philosophy’s “forgotten question”: the question of Being itself.

Heidegger’s project marks a decisive turning point in twentieth-century philosophy. Through a radical reinterpretation of metaphysics, ontology, language, and history, he reshaped the landscape of continental philosophy and influenced thinkers such as Sartre, Derrida, Levinas, Gadamer, Arendt, and many others.

This course traces the historical development of the question of Being from the Pre-Socratics through Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, and into Heidegger’s own phenomenological ontology. Special attention is given to Heidegger’s analysis of Dasein (being-there), his conception of truth as aletheia (unconcealment), his critique of metaphysics as “forgetfulness of Being,” and his later reflections on language, poetry, technology, and the “history of Being.”

The course concludes with a critical appraisal of Heidegger’s thought, including its dialogue with positivism, its reinterpretation by Derrida and Levinas, and Stanley Rosen’s philosophical reversal of Heidegger’s ontology.

This is not merely a historical course. It is an invitation to engage one of the most profound philosophical inquiries of modern thought: the meaning of existence itself.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, students will:

1. Understand Heidegger’s formulation of the fundamental question of metaphysics.
2. Grasp the distinction between beings (Seiendes) and Being (Sein), known as the ontological difference.
3. Analyze Heidegger’s concept of Dasein and its existential structures.
4. Examine Heidegger’s critique of traditional metaphysics.
5. Evaluate Heidegger’s engagement with major philosophical figures from the Pre-Socratics to Nietzsche.
6. Interpret key Heideggerian concepts such as:
   • Being-in-the-world
   • Temporality
   • Authenticity and inauthenticity
   • Anxiety (Angst)
   • Being-toward-death
   • Truth as unconcealment (aletheia)
   • Ereignis (appropriation/event)
7. Critically assess Heidegger’s legacy in contemporary philosophy.
8. Develop the capacity to articulate and defend philosophical positions concerning the nature of Being.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Explain the historical evolution of the concept of Being.
• Distinguish between metaphysical ontology and Heidegger’s fundamental ontology.
• Interpret primary philosophical texts with hermeneutical precision.
• Identify Heidegger’s critique of Cartesian subjectivity and modern technological thinking.
• Discuss the relationship between language and ontology in Heidegger’s later thought.
• Compare Heidegger’s thought with positivism and analytic philosophy.
• Engage critically with post-Heideggerian interpretations (Derrida, Levinas, Rosen, etc.).
• Construct coherent philosophical arguments regarding existence, temporality, and meaning.

Course Structure and Content

Introduction: The Fundamental Question of Metaphysics

The course begins with an exploration of the question: Why is there something rather than nothing?

We examine various responses — from positivism to theological explanations — and situate Heidegger’s project within this broader philosophical landscape.

Part I – Placing the Question of Being in Context

1. Heidegger’s Intellectual Biography

• Early influences (Brentano, Husserl)
• Break with neo-Kantianism
• Publication of Being and Time
• Political controversy and the “turn” (die Kehre)

2. Grammar and Etymology of Being

• The linguistic roots of Sein
• The philosophical implications of verbal substantives
• The danger of conceptual emptiness in metaphysical vocabulary

3. The Historical Development of the Question of Being

• The Pre-Socratics: Anaximander, Heraclitus, Parmenides
• Plato and Aristotle: substance and permanence
• Medieval ontology: essence and existence
• Descartes and subjectivity
• Kant and Being as non-predicate
• Hegel and absolute spirit
• Nietzsche and the will to power

4. The Intuition of Being

• Phenomenological intuition (Husserl)
• Heidegger’s critique of “essential intuition”
• Interpretation as prior to intuition

5. The Limitation of Being

• Physis and presence
• The transition from unconcealment to correctness
• The emergence of metaphysics

6. Dasein and Fundamental Ontology

• Being-in-the-world
• Thrownness (Geworfenheit)
• Mood and attunement (Befindlichkeit)
• Care (Sorge)
• Being-with (Mitsein)
• Fallenness (Verfallenheit)
• Authenticity and inauthenticity
• Being-toward-death (Sein-zum-Tode)
• Temporality (Zeitlichkeit)

Part II – The History of Being and Language

1. Dialogue with Hegel

• The end of philosophy
• Destruction vs. culmination
• The meaning of “completion” (Vollendung)

2. Truth as Aletheia

• Truth as unconcealment
• Freedom and disclosure
• The relationship between concealment and revelation

3. Hölderlin and Poetry

• The poetic dwelling of humanity
• The sacred dimension of language

4. Ereignis (Appropriation/Event)

• Being as event
• The transformation of language
• The history of Being

5. Calculative vs. Essential Thinking

• The critique of technological modernity
• The danger of instrumental reason

Part III – Heidegger and Positivism

• Logical positivism and the rejection of metaphysics
• The claim that the question of Being is meaningless
• Heidegger’s response to the reduction of philosophy to logic

We examine contemporary philosophers such as:

• Nicholas Rescher
• Robert Nozick
• John Leslie

and evaluate their attempts to answer the fundamental question.

Part IV – Deconstruction and Reversal

1. From Heidegger to Sartre

• Existential freedom
• The transformation of Dasein

2. The Mystical Element in Heidegger

• The role of silence and ineffability
• The limits of philosophical discourse

3. Derrida and Deconstruction

• Destruktion and différance
• Writing and the critique of metaphysical presence

4. Levinas and the Ethical Challenge

• The primacy of the Other
• Ethics versus ontology

5. Stanley Rosen’s Reversal

• Critical reassessment of Heidegger’s project
• The limits of ontological reduction

Academic Significance

Heidegger’s question of Being is not merely a technical philosophical inquiry. It is a radical rethinking of human existence, language, temporality, truth, and meaning. His thought challenges:

• Scientific objectivism
• Technological domination
• Reductionist metaphysics
• Subject-centered epistemology

At the same time, his philosophy has generated intense debate — especially concerning his political involvement in the 1930s — which makes critical engagement both necessary and urgent.

This course equips students to understand Heidegger not as a historical curiosity but as a thinker whose work continues to shape contemporary debates in philosophy, theology, literary theory, and political thought.

Concluding Perspective

To study Heidegger is to confront a profound challenge:
Are we capable of thinking Being itself?

This course does not offer ready-made answers. Instead, it cultivates philosophical attentiveness — a capacity to dwell within the question.

In doing so, it invites students into what Heidegger called authentic thinking: a thinking that is not merely calculative, but responsive to the mystery of existence.