Help me read Being and Time!
December 9, 2007 10:47 AM Subscribe
Advice for reading Being and Time?
In January a small reading group of philosophy grad students, myself included, is going to attempt Being and Time. We haven't enlisted the help of any professors, as we are interested in reading it in our own terms. Of you brilliant MeFites out there who have read it before I ask for any advice you have about background research, breaking up the readings over a six month period, and the general reading of the text. Of you brilliant MeFites who won't read, or stopped reading, the famously difficult work I ask for any reasons why we should bail out now. Thanks!
In January a small reading group of philosophy grad students, myself included, is going to attempt Being and Time. We haven't enlisted the help of any professors, as we are interested in reading it in our own terms. Of you brilliant MeFites out there who have read it before I ask for any advice you have about background research, breaking up the readings over a six month period, and the general reading of the text. Of you brilliant MeFites who won't read, or stopped reading, the famously difficult work I ask for any reasons why we should bail out now. Thanks!
Magda King wrote an interpretive guide called "Heidegger's Philosophy: A Guide to His Basic Thought" that's well regarded. I read it and found it useful to understand the overall thrust of the book, though it is a small book and more of an overview than a detailed study guide. She recently wrote a longer one with John Llewellyn that I haven't read, but that is also well thought of.
Also, I found the first chunk of it - the critique of previous metaphysics - much more intelligible once I'd read Aristotle's Metaphysics in great depth (I've been told that being familiar with Leibniz will also assist). Particularly useful are the sections in Metaphysics Lambda where Aristotle talks about what we now call "substances" and "entities".
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 5:40 PM on December 9, 2007
Also, I found the first chunk of it - the critique of previous metaphysics - much more intelligible once I'd read Aristotle's Metaphysics in great depth (I've been told that being familiar with Leibniz will also assist). Particularly useful are the sections in Metaphysics Lambda where Aristotle talks about what we now call "substances" and "entities".
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 5:40 PM on December 9, 2007
The only thing that allowed me to get through it was having a class that demanded a small portion be read every day. That and Being and Nothingness were leitmotivs throughout a semester. But Heidegger was so dense that I would have had a hard time making it all the way through if I hadn't talked about it every single day.
posted by klangklangston at 11:39 AM on December 10, 2007
posted by klangklangston at 11:39 AM on December 10, 2007
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posted by jayder at 12:05 PM on December 9, 2007