Intimations of Mortality: Time, Truth, and Finitude in Heidegger's Thinking of Being

David Farrell Krell

ISBN 10: 0271004274 / ISBN 13: 9780271004273

Published by Pennsylvania State University Press, 1986

About this Item

Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 201 pages. Four major subthemes in Heidegger?s thinking are explored in the book?s four parts: the fundamental ontology developed in Being and Time; the ?lighting and clearing? of Being, understood as ?unconcealment?; the history of philosophy?with emphasis on Heraclitus, Hegel, and Nietzsche?interpreted as the ?destiny? of Being; and the poetics of Being, explicated as the ?fundamental experience? of mortality. Neither an introduction nor a survey, this book is a close reading of a wide range of Heidegger?s books, lectures, and articles?including extensive material not yet translated into English?informed by the author?s conversations with Heidegger in 1974?76. Each of the four subthemes is treated critically. The aim of the book is to push its interrogations of Heidegger?s thought as far as possible, in order to help the reader toward an independent assessment of his work and to encourage novel, radically conceived approaches to traditional philosophical problems. Clean copy. Record # 472211.

Seller Inventory # 472211

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Intimations of Mortality: Time, Truth, and Finitude in Heidegger's Thinking of Being
• Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0271004274
• ISBN 13: 9780271004273
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

Heidegger’s thinking has an underlying unity, this book argues, and has cogency for seemingly diverse domains of modern culture: philosophy and religion, aesthetics and literary criticism, intellectual history and social theory. “The theme of mortality―finite human existence―pervades Heidegger’s thought,” in the author’s words, “before, during, and after his magnum opus, Being and Times, published in 1927.” This theme is manifested in Heidegger’s work not “as funereal melodramatics or as despair and destructive nihilism” but rather “as a thinking within anxiety.”

Four major subthemes in Heidegger’s thinking are explored in the book’s four parts: the fundamental ontology developed in Being and Time; the “lighting and clearing” of Being, understood as “unconcealment”; the history of philosophy―with emphasis on Heraclitus, Hegel, and Nietzsche―interpreted as the “destiny” of Being; and the poetics of Being, explicated as the “fundamental experience” of mortality.

Neither an introduction nor a survey, this book is a close reading of a wide range of Heidegger’s books, lectures, and articles―including extensive material not yet translated into English―informed by the author’s conversations with Heidegger in 1974–76. Each of the four subthemes is treated critically. The aim of the book is to push its interrogations of Heidegger’s thought as far as possible, in order to help the reader toward an independent assessment of his work and to encourage novel, radically conceived approaches to traditional philosophical problems.

About the Author

David Farrel Krell is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at DePaul University and author of Postponements: Woman, Sensuality, and Death in Nietzsche (1986) and Of Memory, Reminiscence, and Writing: On the Verge (1990). He is also the editor and translator of Heidegger's four-volume Nietzsche, Early Greek Thinking, and Basic Writings (1979).