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Being and Time
9Martin Heidegger
Heidegger's 1927 treatise rebuilt continental philosophy from the ground up — Sartre, Arendt, Gadamer, Derrida, and Foucault all wrote in its long shadow.
GBM Assessment (Score: 9/10)
Being and Time is one of the two or three most important philosophical works of the twentieth century. Martin Heidegger reshaped continental philosophy entirely: Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Derrida, Foucault, and Arendt all defined their work in response to his radical rethinking of the question of Being. The concepts of Dasein, thrownness, being-toward-death, and the distinction between authentic and inauthentic existence have become foundational categories of modern thought.
Heidegger published Being and Time as Lindbergh flew the Atlantic and the Weimar Republic entered its fragile period of stability. His later embrace of Nazism as rector of Freiburg in 1933 remains an inescapable biographical stain that continues to generate debate about the relationship between philosophical genius and moral failure. The work is the most cited philosophical text of the twentieth century in the continental tradition and a core text at every philosophy department worldwide.
Germany, 1927
Heidegger publishes Being and Time, reshaping continental philosophy entirely. Lindbergh flies the Atlantic. The Jazz Singer inaugurates talkies. Stalin consolidates power. The Weimar Republic is stable but fragile. The speculative frenzy on Wall Street is building toward catastrophe. Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Gadamer, Derrida, and Arendt will all define their work in response to Heidegger's radical rethinking of the question of Being.
Awards & Adaptations
Foundation of existentialism, hermeneutics, deconstruction, and existential psychiatry. Most-cited philosophical work of the 20th century in continental tradition. Core text at every philosophy department worldwide.
Recommended Edition
John Macquarrie & Edward Robinson trans. (Blackwell, 1962); Joan Stambaugh trans. (SUNY, 1996; rev. 2010)
