Martin Heidegger (Heidegger Martin)

(1889-1976)
As a student and assistant to Husserl, has made a major contribution to the development of phenomenology. However, Heidegger's views are very different from those of Husserl. The latter focused on the reflexive and largely rational forms of experience of consciousness, whereas Heidegger attached particular importance to the underlying existential situation. According to Heidegger, . true understanding must begin with the most fundamental levels of historical, . practical and emotional human existence - from the levels, . which at first may not be realized and that, . perhaps, . affect the activities of the mind,
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Heidegger was born on September 26, 1889 in Meskirhe (now the Land of Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany). He graduated from the Jesuit school, high school (1909), entered the university in Freiburg im Breisgau, where he defended his doctoral dissertation (1913). In 1920, Heidegger became assistant to Husserl. In 1923 he became a professor of the University of Marburg, and five years later Husserl named him his successor at the department of philosophy at Freiburg. In 1933 he was elected Dean of the Faculty. Once on top of the teaching career, Heidegger was soon forced to resign. After the war he lived in seclusion at first, but later resumed teaching and led it until 1957. Heidegger died in Meskirhe May 26, 1976.

Heidegger as a thinker, occupied primarily forms of everyday existence, or, in his words, ways of 'being in the world'. He shared a deep skepticism of Husserl against certain trends of contemporary scientific thought, . especially related with the increasing reliance on purely formal, . quantitative aspects of mathematical knowledge and its application to such far away areas of research, . as social science,
. Heidegger believed that the modern scientific thinking does not distinguish between the way of being human subject and the mode of being characteristic of physical objects. Scientific thinking ignores the very concept of existence, the very meaning of what it means to exist.

In Being and Time (Sein und Zeit, 1927) Heidegger proposes to examine the meaning of life and describe ways in which existence itself is, - a task he called the 'fundamental ontology'. The starting point, from his point of view, should be to describe the most close to us the phenomenon of life - of human existence. However, . Unlike Husserl, . for which such a description is possible only on a reflexive level of pure consciousness, . Heidegger insisted, . that human existence should be analyzed in terms of its specific relationships with the socio-historical world, . in which a man says, . thinks and acts,
. The human subject is 'here', it exists (Dasein, there-being), 'abandoned' in the pre-existing world. Heidegger analyzed several primary ways ( 'existential') of human 'being in the world', . such as instrumental treatment of things, . understanding and interpretation of the world, . use of human language, . understanding, . that there is 'other' and concern for others, . as well as mood and inclinations,
. In each of these ways of being human existence is different from the existence of objects.

Thus, human existence is explained on the basis of the context of real and practical relations of man with the world. Unfortunately, the man turns out to be increasingly obsessed with daily chores and forget about its existence. He loses his sense of 'authenticity' and falls into the average survival, in the 'defective' ways of being in the world. This - bestrevozhny path conformism. Man turns into one of 'them' (das Man), flows into the anonymous crowd, takes its values and learns the ways of behavior and thinking. However, relying on his deep, personal experience, people can regain the authenticity of the existence. For example, anxiety (Angst) destroys the usual scheme of life and relationships, which leads to isolation. Then faceless 'people' are no longer able to dominate, because 'they' do not give one a sense of comfort and serene existence. For Heidegger and the existentialists experience of anxiety not only frees man from the deadening conformity, but opens him of his own existence as being responsible for the existence of personality, able to act decisively. Heidegger stresses the finite nature of human existence, because every experience is of a temporary nature, a person can think about the boundaries that define existence in anticipation of death (Sein zum Tode, being-to-death)

. Heidegger always believed, . that the problems of peace and 'other' is essential to consider the human condition, . but his later works are devoted not so much a problem of individual subjectivity, . many problems of traditional metaphysics,
. In this paper What is metaphysics? (Was ist Metaphysik?, . 1930) and in the introduction to metaphysics (Einfhrung in die Metaphysik, . 1953) he traces the historical and philosophical roots of the concept of existence and their influence on modern 'technological' interpretation of the nature,
. In his insightful work on language and literature, . such as HцІlderlin and the essence of poetry (Hlderlin und das Wesen der Dichtung, . 1937), . Interpretations of poetry of Holderlin (Erlauterungen zu Hlderlins Dichtung, . 1937), . Detachment (Gelassenheit, . 1959) and the path to the language (Unterwegs zur Sprache, . 1959), . it shows, . as aspirations, . historical traditions and the interpretation, . belonging to a specific time, . find expression through the contemplation of a thinker or a poet,
. The process of thinking is the grateful acceptance of what is. Event (Ereignis) of being not only happens, it is an opportunity to be 'said' or 'inscribed'

. Number of other works of Heidegger devoted to problems of classical and modern philosophy: Plato's doctrine of truth (Platons Lehre von der Wahrheit, . 1947), . Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics (Kant und das Problem der Metaphysik, . 1929), . Forest trails (Holzwege, . 1950), . Nietzsche (Nietzsche, . 1961) and the Question of the things (Die Frage nach dem Ding, . 1962).,