The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger's Being and Time (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)

Great book! I would recommend this to anyone who is looking to get into BT for the first time. I would also recommend this to anyone who has already read BT and is looking for an introduction to the secondary literature. The articles picked by Wrathall are very accessible and from very important people in the world of Heidegger scholarship. They help give a sense of what parts of BT are most controversial and the various interpretations offered in the field.

I you must read Heidegger, which I guess you must if you want to be "up" on the train of philosophical thought, then you must include this Cambridge Companion. A helpful Companion to Heidegger.

An excellent guide to survey this thoroughly fascinanting but not easy to read book of one of the most important philosophers of the XXth. Century-

Excellent!

I bought this book to understand what Heidegger was trying to say in his book Being and Time. I attempted Being and Time about 20 years ago and it was incomprehensible. I wanted a Heidegger scholar interpret the book for me because I recently read a book about Alexander Dugin who uses Heidegger as the foundation for his political philosophy. The author is a professor who specializes in Heidegger and makes a mighty effort to make the philosophy comprehensible. Even he had to admit there were contradictions and ambiguities. I found so many poorly defined terms that I gave up on page 44. When Heidegger claims that the future is part of history I put the book down. History is only concerned with the past, the future is speculation. Heidegger does this a lot with terms and makes up many new words that are not fully defined. For example, " There are different ways to unify our disposedness, authentic and inauthentic. I have an authentic future when I identify myself with my ownmost ability to be." That is the sort of talk that is typical of what I read in Being and Time and it makes no more sense now than then. It is significant that Heidegger never finished Being and Time. There were to be three Divisions in Part 1 and a Part 2. Division 3 and Part 2 were never written. One wonders why a man would write so much and then not finish the project? My opinion is that Heidegger ran into logical contradictions that he could not solve without re-writing the first part. This book confirmed my impression of Heidegger as a person who had no clear idea of what he wanted to say and no clear vision of how to outline it. For that reason, I am glad I bought this book so I can feel secure knowing that Martin Heidegger was an intellectual con artist who has fooled a lot of people with his made up words and foggy concepts. This book about Being and Time is as incomprehensible as the subject ( not the author's fault, making sense out of nonsense is impossible ).

thanks

Some of the best writing for unpacking of the sometimes difficult original reading of Being & Time. Will expand and drive your understanding without tears. Plain writing suitable for academic and non-academic audiences. Highly recommended.

Still well worth a read. The newest one is available at Waterstones.

Not much easier to read than the man himself. I think it persuaded me that this form of philosophy really does not connect with me.