Martin Heidegger and the Question of Interpretation

Abstract

Any confrontation with Martin Heidegger's thought necessitates a radical understanding and a disposition to evacuate one's own mind of past beliefs. Anyone who has the desire to travel Heidegger's path of thinking should be aware that this philosopher is the most complicated amongst twentieth-century philosophers. His radical project which aims at the rediscovery of Being, the special and primordial use of language, and his unfinished enterprise are the reasons why he is so challenging and complicated. This, in its tum, defies the attempt at a unified study that deals with his philosophy and its influence on literary interpretation. Critics used to say that we do not have just one Heidegger, but many.

Martin Heidegger was born on September, 26, 1889. He attended a Jesuit seminary, then earned (in 1914) his doctorate degree from the University of Freiburg, where he became the assistant ofEdmund Husser!. As rector of the university from 1933 to 1934, he was a vocal support of the Hitler regime, and became a member of the Nazi party until 1945. Because of this an attempt was made to remove him from the faculty after World War II, but he managed to retain his teaching post.