De l'essence de la vérité: Approche de l'"allégorie de la caverne" et du "Théétète" de Platon

by Martin Heidegger

Offers the most thorough explanation of the most fundamental and abiding theme in Heidegger's philosophy: the relationship of an individual's existence to truth.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, German Literature, Politics, Ebooks, Germany, Classics

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

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]

Nietzsche wrote that Christianity is Platonism for the masses. Heidegger further claimed that it was not just Christianity; but Christianity's materialistic and rational opponents, Nietzsche's thinking, all theories, theologies, sciences and technology, all worldviews, and so on - that were and are still Platonic. If this is the case, then we are immersed in Platonism to such a degree that nothing outside it makes any sense for us. And probably this is why this book is so difficult to follow; but also quite important.
Heidegger discusses two Platonic dialogues – in fact sections from two dialogues – the cave allegory from the Republic and the debate concerning knowledge from Theaetetus. For Heidegger, the cave allegory points to and represents the original and proper Greek understanding of truth as aletheia/unhiddenness. There are some hints of departure from this proper understanding of truth in the Republic; however the Western thinking took a fateful and erroneous turn with Theaetetus. In fact, Heidegger pinpoints the exact 4-5 lines in the dialog where this happened. With the understanding of Being as idea, untruth no longer belongs to the hiddenness of beings, but to the logos and its propositions/statements. Truth (understood as correctness) follows untruth (understood as mis-take/un-correctness), with both belonging to propositions/statements exclusively. Aristotle further consolidated this understanding of truth/untruth. Christianity, in its quest for eternal salvation, individualized the open Greek soul and located the true/untruth statements in such closed souls. Subjects and objects, representations, theories, ideologies, worldviews, sciences, and technologies followed. To Heidegger this was the fall of the Western thinking and the fateful history of philosophy/metaphysics.

[Seyed Hashemi · Rating 3 out of 5]

بعضی متن‌ها خیلی جالب اند، کَل انداختن غول‌ها را در آن خواهیم دید؛ کلنجار رفتن بنیان‌گذاران با یکدیگر.

تو این نوشتهٔ کوتاه، هایدگر تلاش می‌کند از دل "تمثیل غار" معروف افلاطون به مفهوم و آموزه حقیقت/Wahrheit (به یونانی ἀλήθεια که آلثیا/aletheia تلفظ می‌شود) برسد و نشان بدهد از دل این تمثیل می‌توان ایدهٔ اساسی حقیقت از دیدگاه افلاطون را استخراج کرد؛ نگاهی که با بردا‌شت ارسطویی و هم‌چنین برداشت مدرن از حقیقت که نظریات مختلفی از جمله "مطابقت" با وضع امور و مثل آن را در بر می‌‌گیرد، تفاوت‌های عمده‌ای دارد. یعنی در جهان معنایی افلاطونی، ناپوشیدگی چیزی است که ما از لغت-مفهومِ باید فهم کنیم که این منطق پرده‌داری مستتر در این برداشت از حقیقت، بسیار توفیر دارد با همان تعریف حقیقت به مثلا مطابقت با وضع امور.
این مورد هم مشخصا خیلی به ایده‌های وجودی هایدگر باز می‌گردد که دوست دارد به سرآغاز همه‌چیز یا همان وجود/sein باز گردد. او در این رساله، رابطه میان این برداشت از حقیقت با وجود را در جهان اندیشه افلاطونی و مشخصا تمثیل غار را سعی می‌کند با واکاوی‌های فلسفی و لغوی نشان بدهد.


طبق تصویر مشهور از هایدگر، در این نوشتار مختصر نیز نکته‌سنجی‌های فقه‌اللّغة‌ی (اتیمولوژیستی) بخش اساسی پیشرفت متن بود. یعنی هایدگر به واکاوی لغوی الفاظ یونانی محاوره جمهوری می‌پرداخت و جای جای هم علیه ترجمه‌های "تحت الفضلی" از عبارات قد علم می‌کرد و با ارجاع به زمانهٔ نگارش محاوره، نقدی به این ترجمه‌ها وارد می‌کرد.



در نهایت اینکه یه متن پایه‌ای و اساسی در رستگاه فلسفه را به تفسیر یکی از اسامی مهم فلسفه قرن 20 بازخوانی و بازتفسیر کردم بسیار برایم ارزشمند و واجد محتوای تحلیلی بود.

البته طبعا باید بعدها اندکی بیشتر و دقیق‌تر با این متن کلنجار برم که فهوای آن به‌جانم نشیند. یه خیلی هم سوال از متن دارم که نمی‌دونم از کی باید بپرسم فعلا :)


راستی متن رو با ترجمه فارسی اثر که به عنوان "آموزهٔ حقیقت افلاطون" به ترجمهٔ طالب جابری و نشر لگا منتشر شده است خوندم. یه جاهایی رو به عنوان کنجکاوی و ور رفتنی، اندکی با متن آلمانی کلنجار رفتم که بعضا باعث شد واقعا بهتر متن رو بفهمم، ولی قاطبه چیزهایی که به نظر میاد فهمیدم رو از متن فارسی کسب کردم. ترجمهٔ خوبی بود واقعا، طالب جابری درست ترجمه می‌کنه :))

زیاده حرفی نیست.

[Hossein M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

هایدگر آن‌قدر هم سخت و نفهمیدنی‌ نیست. این مقاله هم خیلی سخت نبود، در عوض خیلی هیجان‌انگیز بود.

ترجمه‌ را تطبیق ندادم، اما حداقل فارسی‌ش بدی نبود. ویرایش نشر لگا هم‌چنان افتضاح است. پانویس‌ها و قلاب‌ها و... یک‌دست نیست، و گاهی نیم‌فاصله‌ها یا علائم سجاوندی زائد یا غایب‌اند.

[Mavaddat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes a phenomenological engagement with two seminal texts in the founding of Western philosophy: Plato's cave allegory (Πολιτεία 514a–520a) and Plato's Theaetetus dialogue. It unfolds as a lecture, which means the whole discourse is very easy to follow and Heidegger is at his most lucid and straightforward here.
His main thesis is that we need to understand how appearance and “presenc-ing” but also concealment are inextricably linked to Being in the originary Greek conception of things, rather than appearance's being a kind of concession or failure to engage with the real things in themselves (as though their truth lay somehow behind the veil of mere appearance and phenomenon).
The Bloomsbury publishing version of this book was obviously OCR'ed from manuscripts of the translation, since there are numerous typos of ancient Greek (lambda is frequently confused for gamma, and vice versa). This won't be distracting for the non literate in Greek, since they'll probably be skipping over the Greek words but it's irritating for anyone who notices the mistakes.

[Ryan Denson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a splendid translation of two of Heidegger's exegetical lectures on Plato. It follows his characteristic style of philological methods for pursing epistemology. In these two lectures, he seeks a deeper understanding of what truth is. The first begins by pondering the curious nature of how truth is portrayed in ancient Greek. The usual word for truth, ἀλήθεια, is curiously a linguistically negative term. It is more accurately translated as "unhiddenness." Considering this oddity, Heidegger embarks on a thorough reinterpretation of Plato's allegory of the cave. The second lecture focuses on a section of Plato's Theaetetus to inquire into the nature of untruth (or, in Greek, ψεῦδος, which bears no linguistic relation to ἀλήθεια).

Heidegger's ideas are tremendously insightful, though complex and, at times, difficult to comprehend. Understanding these arguments is aided by the clarity of this translation, thanks to the painstaking efforts of the translator, Ted Sadler. Knowing ancient Greek is not really required to read this in full. However, Heidegger refers to many ancient Greek terms constantly and, despite Sadler's helpful addition of a glossary for these and other German terms, it may be difficult to keep up with for some. Nevertheless, it is an excellent book to read, especially at a time that is so often proclaimed to be the "post-truth" era. Most of all, it reminds us that there is not merely a simple binary relationship between truth and falsity. Rather, there are frequently many shades of grey between the two or, at times, no relation between them at all.

[Champagne Drinking Teetotaler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wichtig um Heidegger zu "verstehen", weniger wichtig um Plato zu verstehen.
Heidegger bekennt sich zu dem Ziel, lediglich eine andere Vorstellung bzw. Konzeption von Wahrheit vorstellen zu wollen ("bislang Ungedachtes denken"). Sollte dies stimmen, so schießt er weit über das Ziel hinaus wenn er behauptet, dass Unverborgenheit (Wahrheit als eine Eigenschaft von Dingen oder Erscheinungen) fundamentaler ist als Wahrheit, aufgefasst als eine Eigenschaft von Aussagen. Diese These, welche sich an anderen Stellen von Heideggers Gesamtwerk finden lässt (besonders vor der "Kehre") , ist aber schon aus rein logischen Gründen schon nicht haltbar.

Eine meines Erachtens nach sehr gute Kritik an diesem Aufsatz Heideggers ist erschienen unter dem Titel "Heidegger in the Cave" von Jonathan Barnes (meines Erachtens viel treffender als die viel bekanntere Kritik von Paul Friedländer). Heidegger wirft historische, philologische, exegetische und philosophische Thesen durcheinander, Barnes trennt diese und zeigt dadurch inwieweit Heidegger seine Thesen gar nicht substantiiert.
Ebenfalls möchte ich auf die Kritik(en) welche durch Ernst Tugendhat an verschiedenen Stellen vorgebracht worden sind verweisen.

Nichtsdestotrotz stellt Heidegger sehr interessante Überlegungen an und es ist ein durchaus lohnenswerter Aufsatz. Besonders in Bezug auf Heideggers Verständnis von Nietzsche und seiner Auffassung Geschichte des abendländischen Nihilismus ist Heideggers Auffassung der Geschichte und Schicksals der Wahrheit äußerst wichtig.

[Tom Romer · Rating 5 out of 5]

ONE OF MY FAVES

This is one of my favourite lecture courses by the German professor of philosophy Martin Heidegger.

His fastidious penetration of two of Plato's dialogues, including an outstanding unravelling of the parable of the cave from Book Ten of Republic, should be but pure delight for the spiritually-inclined among you.

A knowledge of Classical Greek—or, at the least, of its alphabet and pronunciation—is certainly recommended by this reviewer to appreciate the book's scope and spirit as Heidegger dissects Plato's language with razor-sharp precision.

I can't stress enough how beautiful this lecture is.

[Ivva Tadiashvili · Rating 5 out of 5]

ჰაიდეგერის კაი ხანი მეშინოდა, ჰაიედეგერის და ჰეგელის. რა არის ეს - ფილოსოფია? წავიკითხე ჰაიდეგეირის და გამიჭირდა. მარა კაი ხნის წინ წავიკითხე და ეხლა შოპენჰაუერს რომ ვკითხულობ მეგობარმა რომელიც ფილოსოფიაში "უფ" ისე ერკვევა მითხრა ჰეგელი წაიკეთხეო. fuck hegel სანამ შოპს ვკითხულობ, მარა ჰაიდეგერს გავურისკე. და ვაფშე არაა რთული ანუ რთული იყო 20 წლის რო ვიყავი მაშინ ალბათ.
ამ წიგნში ჰაიდეგერი პლატონის გამოქვაბულის ალეგორიას განიხილავს, რომელსაც თვითონ "იგავს" ეძახის.
პლატონის გამოქვაბულზე სულ ვფიქრობ რავი ბევრი მაქვს ნაფიქრი. ჰაიდეგერმა ეს იგავი 4 ეტაპად დამანახა და ცოტათი უფრო სხვანაირად აღვიქვი. დავფიქრდი ამ ოთხი საფეხურიდან რომელში ვარ. ჰაიდეგერი სერიოზული ტიპია. შოპენჰაუერს რო მივიყვან ბოლომდე ჰეგელსაც შევჭამ.
რაც შეეხება თარგმანს, მგონი კარგია, მაგრამ მგონი რუსულიდან თარგმნეს რადგან არ უწერია რომელი ენიდან თარგმნეს. კომენტარების კითხვა გიჟივით მიყვარს და არ ქონდა საერთოდ კომენტარები და ცოტა გატეხა. მაგრამ ისეთი არაფერი ყოფილა.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 5 out of 5]

En mycket spännande genomgång av Platons grottliknelse, med fokus på begreppet sanning, hos platon det ofördolda. Utöver själva begreppsutredningen gör Heidegger en spännande tolkning av vad detta säger om människans naturliga tillstånd och naturliga impulser - han hävdar att förtjusning är tillfredställd nyfikenhet, och nyfikenhet impulsen av sanningslängtan. En vacker skrift, och läsvärd, även om den är ganska tung.

[Lucy]

man i love heidegger!

[Brendan Symons · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just really didn’t enjoy this one.

[Tijmen Lansdaal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Artificial and crass, but highly imaginative interpretations, resulting in some interesting questions (regarding untruth and Being) that aren't really explored much - the Theaetetus is there precisely to show that with that dialogue one just can't. I don't mind his more favourable reading of the Allegory so much (a lot better than his essay on that topic - christ that was bad!), but his reading of Theaetetus just seems perfunctory altogether.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best Heidegger book I've read! Excellent addition to the Platonic dialogues covered. He is right on with his definition of what is true and incorrect opinion. Will reread this one for sure.

[Enrique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truth as “Discovering” is the central insight of this remarkable research. Heidegger answers are not the decisive point in this research, the decisive is the method. Heidegger look for an answer to this insight but not in new scholarship but looking at Plato main dialogues about episteme.

You can’t criticize this text, is not something like criticize, you can look and think, but specifically you can find ways to see. Edmund Husserl was the first to see the real meaning of true for the Greeks, this first discovery gave Heidegger the clue of how to see the problem and guide the research.

This book gave the clarity to see in Heidegger answers the political affinity of his thinking with the nazi upheaval, Heidegger in his search for truth open his cards and we can see his belated critic to Marxism ideology, and also his new view about being, being as something that you strive for, this “Strive” is not a epistemology really something like that, is a mix of things, but specially it works wonderful for Heidegger to understand the importance of the nazi movement as a striving for the German being.

Is his philosophy nazi? You can’t say for sure that all this tirade is nazi, you can see that the method is for sure not nazi, is Husserl method in steroids. But the answers are the main problem, Heidegger and his “right point” of departure, his love for the original, there is the main problem of his philosophy, if you are free enough you can take the same way, the same method and arrive to different conclusions. What is true? The answer is not important, what you discover is the pathway to that.

[feifei · Rating 4 out of 5]

probably the most edifying interpretation of the allegory of the cave (the “doctrine”?) out there that has definitely inspired both my hum and sosc professors because i’m pretty sure they lifted the “turning around” part straight from this essay. πιδεια is a fascinating concept: a progression, a change of state, a state itself… although i honestly still don’t fully understand how we went from the ιδέα vs αλήθεια distinction to “truth is correctness” (and the whole bunch of stuff on hiddenness/un-hiddenness)

so much more interesting than the “letter on humanism” that i’m still slaving away at. minus points for refusing to provide the romanization of the greek words, though i suppose it’s helping me learn how to read the greek alphabet (the αλφαβήτα!)

[Epifras]

sagan om hur sanningen blev en ortotes, en behandling

raka träd lutande träd

avvänja sig vid ljusets starka smärta, bilda lida sig in i riktigheten in i ljuset

gå korrekt med din klumpfot oidipus

eldarna och den enda solen skiner ständigt

nietzsche säger man ska irra men irrandet går bara om det rätta och riktiga finns

för heidegger så bortser platon från aletheia genom att lägga en dager av falskhet och riktighet på sanningen - som om någonting som visar sig kunde vara falskt, oriktigt, overkligt? det visar ju

[Charissa Ty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm on page 60 of 304 of The Essence of Truth: Okay the first 40 pages made sense but after 60, it feels a little bit like mumbo jumbo to me. I'm a finisher, and this is one of the 3 books I've given up in my lifetime.

But, in those 40 pages, I was really enlightened. I love how he talks about the transition to successful liberation by explaining how people tend to find familiarity and the linguistic differences between unhiddenness and correctness.

[Andrew Noselli · Rating 3 out of 5]

The lyricism of Heidegger's philosophical thought was more prominent in the first section dealing with Plato's allegory of the cave, than in the second section which dealt with an explication of Plato's Theaethetos, which I had planned to adapt for my review of Bernard William's book, "The Sense of the Past." Perhaps I will have to think out Plato's thought philosophically on my own after forgetting what Heidegger originally said ?

[Euwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucid, but the constant use of Greek terms are difficult to track. Still, I got a lot out of it. Great exposition into the primordiality of truth, as discussed by the ancient Greeks, and the essence of truth in its primordiality - as unhiddenness and in correspondence to being, ontological rather than epistemological (truth as as correctness of proposition), which in its primordiality is downstream from the ontological.

[Mariam Keshealshvili · Rating 4 out of 5]

მეტაფიზიკაზე ბევრად მარტივი ენით უწერია და პლატონის გამოქვაბულის ისტორია ბევრად რაციონალურად აქვს ახსნილი ვიდრე აქამდე წამიკითხავს სხვა ავტორებისგან.

პლატონის დიდი მოყვარული ვარ თუცა საინტერესოდ ჰქონდა ახსნილი და ვფიქრობ დააინტერესებს იმ ადამიანებს ვისაც წაკითხული აქვს ეს უკანასკნელი და უფრო მეტის გაგება და სხვანაირად აღქმა უნდა.

[Jacob Lipeles · Rating 2 out of 5]

fuck heidegger

[skin reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Не знам шта је овде рекао али ајде да кажемо да је знање моћ.

[Mika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Labertasche

[majid · Rating 4 out of 5]

talking about the essence of things without having a clear idea will not lead us to new knowledge. but in this book you can find a new meaning of truth digged out from an old greek concept that had known truth not as a correctness but as unhidenness of realities, there is realy a huge difference in between that can change our mind and influence our search toward reality and real truth.

[Thespian999 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've only read the Allegory of the Cave but I liked Plato's point of view. I enjoyed analyzing it.