Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil

Honestly, my purchase was primarily based on the fact that the author and I share the same surname. What I received was a biography that did three things for me (an ordinary guy with ordinary intelligence).1. Made clear Heidegger’s impact on philosophy and how his thought compared and contrasted to other leading thinkers of the day.2. Provided an objective analysis of Heidegger’s involvement with Hitler’s National Socialist Party.3. An engaging presentation of the relational ups and down Heidegger had with Hannah Arendt (a Jew) and others. Especially poignant were the episodes shared about Heidegger’s last years of life.Safranski is highly readable and engaging!

If you want to tackle Heidegger, this is a great place to start. (Along with Simon Critchley's podcast series). Terrific book. Well written. Fair and even-handed. And just super interesting all around. Highly recommended!

I ordered this book in hardcover (publisher:Harvard University Press, Cambridge,MA) because of its lasting value. It was in excellent condition, and was shipped promptly. This book is also available in soft cover (paperback).Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was a genius in philosophy (born in Germany aswas another emblematic genius, Albert Einstein) and his thinking will last through the ages. He has had a profound impact on psychology and psychiatry(see his Zollikon Seminars, authored by Martin Heidegger and edited by a very famous Swiss German psychiatrist, Medard Boss), as well as upon other fields of inquiry. Heidegger's Collected Works approach 100 volumes. He was extremely bright, and all of his manuscripts were handwritten because he did not want a typewriter or personal computer to come between his mind and the written word. His hand was part of who he was, and his thinking would flow from his mind, heart, spirit through his hand onto the manuscript page. His Magnum Opus is Sein und Zeit (translated by Macquarrie and Robinson as Being and Time - the best translation available in English) completed in 1926 and dedicated to his mentor, Edmund Husserl (the father of phenomenological philosophy and a Jew).This biography is a wonderful introduction to Martin Heidegger, the human being and the philosophical genius. Professor Heidegger himself always downplayed the significance of his biographical narrative. He preferred that others would focus on his thinking in and of itself. However, there is something magnetic about human genius and we can all benefit from knowing the human being who was so gifted with genius (and wisdom). He loved his native land and very much regretted Germany's tragic immersion in World War I, the Nazi scourge on humanity, and World War II. He loved his native tongue, but also loved the language of Ancient Greece. His "conversational partners" spanned the centuries. Genius has a way of finding other genius. This biographer has done a masterful job of telling one story of the life and works of Martin Heidegger. Other stories of this genius also need to be told.

This book's richness is quite impossible to adequately convey. Safranski not only conjures up the circumstances surrounding Heidegger and his work, but also touches on the zeitgeist surrounding that which surrounded Heidegger. One of the most exciting things I've read in recent years is the portion of the book explicating the 'life philosophy' movement of the late-19th c./early 20th c. and how this played out among the professional and academic class. Fascinating book, and I find myself still able to continue to mine nuggets through the many re-readings of it I have done this past year. By the way, I initially purchased a soft cover copy at Borders and, when I discovered I had accidentally left it behind in a coffee shop somewhere, I had to re-purchase the book again (this time via Amazon, and a hard-back copy now, since it has become a 'lifetime book' for me - one to which I return, over and over again.) Beautifully written and well-translated, this book is Safranski's major achievement, his genuine tour de force. Yes, I profited from his Nietzsche book as well, but that book does not convey the care and - one is tempted to use the word 'love' - that he put into this Heidegger biography. An unqualified masterpiece!

Remarkably clear. Good introduction to Heidegger.

Rüdiger Safranskis biography on Heidegger combines a profound understanding of Heidegger's philosophy with a wealth of anecdotes and perceptive analysis of Heidegger the man and his relationships. In particular, Heidegger's affiliation with National Socialism is well covered.Overall, the book is very impressive and well worth time and effort. As I am quite familiar with the young Heidegger via Theodor Kisiel's "The Genesis of heidegger's Being & Time" and the work of Scandinavian philosophers on the subject, my only regret is that Safranski didn't write more about the "thinking" of the late Heidegger.

This is one of the very best intellectual biographies of Heidegger. Sophisticated without being inscrutable, critical without being overly condemnatory. A landmark book in Heidegger studies

I'm glad I read this book after reading Heidegger's Being and Time and not the other way round, because I would have had a rather `biased' view of Heidegger before reading his magnum opus. Rudiger Safranski, though not a withering critic of Heidegger nor a fawning disciple, presents the man with all his brilliance and weaknesses, and those human and political weaknesses during the 1930s and 1940s were serious. But Safranski's book not only looks at the human being that Heidegger was, with his friendships and his enemies, but also deals with the development of Heidegger's philosophical thinking, not in isolation but within a stream of twentieth-century German thinking, politics and culture. It's an absorbing read.Heidegger's philosophy developed after he broke with his early stage of being protected and promoted by the Catholic Church, which, in Being and Time, published in 1927 when Heidegger would have been 38 years old, seems to suggest a having taken leave of God for an undisclosed `Being', and a having substituted human beings made `in the image of God' for an open-ended and not quite obvious `Dasein'. In fact, there is the sense of a Nihilism infecting Heidegger's philosophy, while at the same time having deep and original insights into the human malaise as evidenced by an industrial and technological society `blinding' people into not seeing the `showing themselves' of objects and others around them. As Safranski points out from time to time, Heidegger's very focus on the Big Questions of `ontology' seemed to blunt his own self-understanding in an `ontic' sense, i.e. the human being in relation to others both personally and politically.Two people with whom Heidegger had complex relations - Hannah Arendt and Karl Jaspers - considered themselves (perhaps rightly) as his two closest friends, and yet he had ways of making it difficult for them at various stages in their lives to accept his ways and manner. The Jewish question, particularly in the era of National Socialism in Germany, makes Safranski devote a chapter to asking the question: `Is Heidegger Anti-Semitic?', and the answer is not immediately clear. However, while Heidegger's philosophy and politics became enmeshed in his mind during this period, there is indication that he was already withdrawing from some of the Nazi thinking and practice even during the war years. Both Jaspers and Arendt found ways of reconnecting to Heidegger after the war, but not without struggling through certain strains, more deeply by Arendt, with whom Heidegger had had an affair in her youth.Safranski's book is a triumph in that it deals with Heidegger's (not easy) philosophical views in an articulate and revealing manner, as well as placing him in his wider philosophical and cultural context, and without losing sight of the man that Heidegger was - brilliant philosopher, immature politician, friend, husband and lover. The original title of the book in German was Ein Meister aus Deutschland: Heidegger und seine Zeit, but the English translation (by Ewald Osers) somehow captures the essence of the person that Heidegger was: Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil. That latter phrase in the English title sums up how I feel about this great and interesting man, and, while I feel cautious about Heidegger on some fronts, I still want to read him and learn from him, while retaining the right to criticise him when I believe that is appropriate.

Quite possible the best biography of a philosoper ever. The chapter on Being and Time is excellent. A must buy.

Excellent book