Name: Introduction to metaphysics
ISBN: 9781299463998

Introduction to metaphysics

Why is there anything at all, instead of nothing? How are we to understand what it is to be? Heidegger argues, in magisterial, flowing and esoteric language, that Western civilisation has gone wrong because it has systematically misunderstood this question. Instead, he claims that we have tried to understand physical things themselves. We have confused appearance with reality: we have replaced understanding with reason, wonder with technology, and use with exploitation. His answer is a return to the beginnings of our thinking to achieve a more sustainable view of the world and a correct view of our limited but central place as thinking beings in it.

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davesimsJan 2013

> Anyway, thanks for this: I'm gonna give this some thought for when I write out a longer, more rigorous iteration. Feel free to email me if you ever want to talk about this intersection; it's pretty much what I do these days.

Absolutely, I'll ping you over email shortly. Although I find in person over libations to be much more dialectical (in the Socratic rather than Hegelian sense.) Maybe we'll cross paths at a conference some day...

> it's pretty much what I do these days.

A minor obsession we share, apparently, although it's been a while since I've been in full philosophical immersion mode.

I must admit I am woefully late to the Deluezian party. I've been reading around him for years (Heidegger, Husserl, a bit of Lacan, Marion, Levinas) but this discussion has pushed me over the edge, it's time I got up to speed -- where would you suggest I start?

As for Bergson, I see him as a kind of rival to the entire Husserlian tradition, Heidegger in particular; addressing the same questions regarding science and the difficulties of post-Kantian, post-Hegelian epistemology in the modern world, but much clearer and therefore less subject to the cult of interpretation that seems to be the domain of French phenomenology. It's all but forgotten that in say, 1920, had you had asked who was the most important philosopher in the world likely the answer would have been 'Bergson.' I think he still has a lot to say to us in 2013.

I'd start with his Introduction to Metaphysics and then to Matter and Memory.

Thanks for the exchange Steve, very fun stuff.

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rayraegahApr 2019

I've been reading books on philosophy, cognitive science and behavioural psychology for half a decade.

For ethnography I don't have any recommendations. I've read books largely to complement my thinking, phenomenology and existentialism. Here's what I've read (notable ones):

Being and Time – Martin Heidegger

The Principle of Reason – Martin Heidegger

Phenomenology of Perception – Maurice Merleau-Ponty

New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time – Ernesto Laclau

Introduction to Metaphysics – Martin Heidegger

The Basic Problems of Phenomenology (Studies in Phenomenology & Existential Philosophy) – Martin Heidegger

History of Western Philosophy – Bertrand Russell

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