Sentieri interrotti

by Martin Heidegger

Originally published in German under the title Holzwege, this collection of texts is Heidegger's first post-war work and contains some of the major expositions of his later philosophy. Although translations of the essays have appeared individually in a variety of places, this is the first English translation to bring them together as Heidegger intended. It is an invaluable resource for all students of Heidegger, whether they study philosophy, literary theory, religious studies, or intellectual history.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Religion, Essays, Art, German Literature, Technology

356 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was a German philosopher whose work is perhaps most readily associated with phenomenology and existentialism, although his thinking should be identified as part of such philosophical movements only with extreme care and qualification. His ideas have exerted a seminal influence on the development of contemporary European philosophy. They have also had an impact far beyond philosophy, for example in architectural theory (see e.g., Sharr 2007), literary criticism (see e.g., Ziarek 1989), theology (see e.g., Caputo 1993), psychotherapy (see e.g., Binswanger 1943/1964, Guignon 1993) and cognitive science (see e.g., Dreyfus 1992, 2008; Wheeler 2005; Kiverstein and Wheeler forthcoming).

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The trite understanding of the work of art based on the distinction form/content is dismissed in the first essay - along with several others that originate in aesthetics, materialist, or idealist understandings. Instead, art is for Heidegger the establishing of truth by the bringing forth of a being that never was before and never will be again; as beauty is one way in which truth as concealment comes to presence.

One of the essential phenomena of modernity is its science – along with machine technology, art as aesthetics, culture as human action, and the loss of gods. For Heidegger, the essence of modern science is research. This in turn is just a procedure that secures in advance an open field of objects along with a grand-plan of natural processes. But rigor and precision in science is just a total commitment to these procedures. As such “mathematical research into nature is not, however, exact because it calculates precisely; rather, it must calculate precisely because the way it is bound to its domain of objects has the character of exactness.”

The piece on Hegel is the most difficult one to follow among these six – as Heidegger stays within the Hegelian system and language. Basically, absolute knowledge means first to accept and to take the absolute in its absoluteness (i.e., in its being-with-us). This presencing-with-us – or parousia or phenomenological experience - is characteristic of the absolute in and for itself. Fundamentally, for Heidegger, this “experience” in Hegel stands for the Being or beings understood as presencing.

With his saying “God is dead”, Nietzsche resurrected the Ancient Greek experience that “all gods must die” and at the same time pointed to the advent of modern nihilism. Nietzsche tried to overcome the Platonic metaphysics by first turning it around and secondly by dismissing the super-sensitive part of it. However, by doing so Nietzsche fundamentally remained within and completed the original Platonic project. With Descartes, the modern subject in his quest for certainty dismisses everything except conscience and its pronouncements. Faithful to this modern project, Nietzsche introduced the will to power as “making beings true”; but this for Heidegger is nothing but the essence of modern technology. For Nietzsche, nihilism means that “the highest values devalue themselves”. For Heidegger, the "nihil" in nihilism means that there is nothing going on with Being.

“What threatens man in his essence is the opinion that technological production would bring the world into order, when it is exactly this ordering that flattens out each ordo, that is each rank, into the uniformity of production and so destroy in advance the real that is the potential source from which rand and appreciation originate out of Being.” This is why we need poets like Rilke in such a desolate time; that is to reach into the abyss, to find, and point to the rest of us the traces of Being or maybe the traces of these traces...

With the last essay on Anaximander's saying, Heidegger points back at the initial oblivion of Being understood as the oblivion of the difference between beings and the Being. Presencing appeared to Anaximander, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plato, and Aristotle; however with the end of the Greek era it degenerated into actualitas. This actuality eventually became reality, while reality in its turn became objectivity for us moderns. As such, all that is left these days of the original presencing, as first stated by Anaximander, is only the “representation of representing”.

[rzewnosci]

Bro did more metaphysical cliffhangers than any Netflix tv show

[julián m.h · Rating 5 out of 5]

hermoso

[Andrés García · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como ha sido costumbre en mi experiencia, siempre intrigantes y extravagantes las interpretaciones que hace Heidegger. Lleva consigo toda una cosmovisión derivada de una fuerte ambición por transformar las formas en las que podemos pensar. Sin duda, mis sendas favoritas fueron dos: “La época de la imagen del mundo” y La frase de Nietzsche “Dios ha muerto”. La primera porque es muy interesante la incesante crítica de Heidegger sobre la metafísica y la esencia del pensamiento moderno, que involucra el constante intento de dominar y controlar el mundo. Al relacionarnos así con la realidad, la reducimos y determinamos dentro de una visión, negando el resto de posibilidades que posee. La segunda senda se me hizo fascinante por el enfoque primordial que le da Heidegger al nihilismo, así como los efectos de la frase “Dios ha muerto” en nuestras vidas y lo que debe encarar la sociedad a partir de ello.
La lectura fue lineal en el sentido de su exposición del “ser”, sin embargo, parabólica por lo densa que resultó en ciertos momentos, al mismo tiempo repetitiva y circular. En este ámbito, siento que Heidegger podría ser un poco más concreto y sintético; entiendo su intención, pero su ejecución llega a ser en ciertos puntos un poco cansada, resultando en ambigüedades por la misma falta de ejemplos.

[ananena]

parcialmente..

[Thomas]

Ja. Er zijn flink wat wandelingen gemaakt door deze "Denkwege." De waarheid van het Zijn zonder meer blijft echter helaas (of misschien veeleer gelukkig) verborgen.

[Rodrigo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A scary and powerful light of ontology in the new world. One of most interesting male existentialist of the XX th century, (who sartre completely fails to understand).
He can lead to terrible conceptions and objectifications of humanity as he is a great humanist.
As he himself pointed out "I hate people that like my writings"

[Ishaan Saxena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin Heidegger spitting bars. Might be my favorite of your oeuvre.

[Edward Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult. Not as easy to read as pathmarks by the same author. Essay on hegel worth reading twice but very difficult to get idea of what in hegels philosophy corresponds to what heidegger means by being. Heidegger interprets hegel in terms of his own philosophy. In why poets he discusses risk in relation to weight and gravity. Gravity here is not the same as in physics.

[Hainamoration · Rating 5 out of 5]

pathmarks???