Heidegger's Being And Time
Continuum's Reader's Guides are clear, concise and accessible introductions to classic works of philosophy. Each book explores the major themes, historical and philosophical context and key passages of a major philosophical text, guiding the reader toward a thorough understanding of often demanding material. Ideal for undergraduate students, the guides provide an essential resource for anyone who needs to get to grips with a philosophical text. Heidegger's Being and Time is one of the most influential and controversial philosophical treatises of the 20th century. It had a profound impact on Sartre and Merleau-Ponty in their further development of phenomenology and existentialism, hugely influenced Gadamer's hermeneutics, and paved the way, partly directly and partly indirectly through Heidegger's later thought, for the emergence of deconstructionism. In addition to being a very important text, it is also a very difficult one. Heidegger presents a number of challenges to the the reader, asking them to abandon many assumptions fundamental to traditional philosophy, such as the mind/body distinction and the concept of substance. The text also introduces a whole host of new concepts and terms and as such is a hugely challenging, yet fascinating, piece of philosophical writing.
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- I must say this truly depends. I can sometimes be more focused with an audiobook. An extreme example? Heidegger's Being and Time, Macquarie and Robinson translation. The audiobook version read by Martyn Swain is a godsend for helping one try to grapple with this monster. Though his only commentary is in timbre, rhythm, speed, it absolutely enriches the reading. The audiobook is something like 24 hours long, but there's just no way you finish in that time (if you ever do finish); if you're like me you've gotta rewind rewind rewind, baby.
A talented reader can work magic. Ukemi and Naxos have great titles.
- To have a good basic overview of epistemological problems read: Descartes Mediation, Spinoza's On the Improvement of The Understanding and Ethics, Leibniz's Monadology, Kant's three critiques, Hegel's Phenomenology and Logic, Heidegger's Being and Time.
I would stay away from analytic philosophy, if you are not an US based academic.
- I'd add Heidegger's Being and Time to that list, and Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra or The Gay Science to that list.
These are are probably the most significant works of Continental philosophy, and should definitely take precedence of Foucault, who's really the only representative of Continental philosophy (with the exception of maybe Hegel) on your list.
It should also be made clear that plato.standford.edu is a highly biased site that mostly depicts philosophy from an Analytic perspective, where Continental thought is barely represented (or misrepresented).
NOTE: As I tried to make clear in a later post in this thread, I'm not recommending Heidegger or Nietzsche for a beginner. I just think their works belong on the list of the person I replied to more than do a lot of the other people he lists (many of whom, by the way, also aren't good for beginners to start with).
- Try Heidegger's Being and Time. It's a super tough read (I read portions of it for a class) but it's motivated by the same frustrations you mention.
- I loved his lecture series on Heidegger's "Being and Time". It helped me finally understand what continental philosophy was all about. I first heard it on iTunes U but it's also on archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/Philosophy_185_Fall_2007_UC_Berk...
- Lately I've been going through Dreyfus's book about Heidegger's Being and Time, called Being-in-the-world, and I've found it majorly inspiring and wonderful. Now I rave about Heidegger to anybody who will listen, more or less coherently.
Dreyfus has made important and influential critiques of "cognitivist" AI grounded in Heideggerian arguments... which can be a fascinating angle to approach existentialism for computer scientists.
I gladly recommend bringing a book of philosophy while travelling. You get new impressions to somehow apply ideas to, which gives a new depth to the travels and the book... plus you might form some interesting associations.
I read this Dreyfus Heidegger book a lot during a stay in rural Thailand, and I had lots of time to reflect... And, for example, part of the book is about this background of cultural habits that we rely on daily, and that only manifests consciously when it turns unfamiliar—like when in a foreign culture. So that was fun to think about.
Yeah, a relaxing vacation mixed with the mental stimulation of good philosophy—add a cup of coffee and that's heaven...
