Being and Time (Contemporary Contin Philosophy)

Certainly, there is substantial variation in motivation of readers to read Being and Time (1927) by Martin Heidegger. This variation can range from the lowly motivated, "Guess it might be nice to understand Heidegger,"to the highly motivated, "I must understand Heidegger, at all cost." Readers can also vary in their expertise in philosophy from those who are general readers to graduate students and professors of philosophy. I count myself among the latter spectrum, i.e., the highly motivated, although I'm not a professor of philosophy nor was I a graduate student in philosophy. Insofar as one is sufficiently primed to read Being and Time, this translation by Joan Stambaugh and Dennis J. Schmidt makes Heidegger especially accessible. My first attempt to read Being and Time ended in frustration and failure. So I obtained several seemingly more comprehensible books: "Introduction to Metaphysics," by Martin Heidegger (English version, 2000, Yale University Press); "Being-in-the-World," by Hubert L. Dreyfus (1991, MIT Press); and "Heidegger Explained," by Graham Harman (2007, Carus Publishing, Open Court). After studying the books mentioned above I obtained Being and Time in the current translation (Stambaugh/Schmidt). What a difference! Compared to my first attempt reading Being and Time the second time proceeded more smoothly and with greater comprehension. Preparing myself by reading the preparatory works mention above was well worth the effort. Being and Time is now highly accessible to this highly motivated reader. Whether one studies texts supplementary to Being and Time I suggest one method of reading Heidegger's treatise: simply plod along as best as one can. The temptation - at least for me - was to meditate on small bites of text trying to digest their meaning perfectly. This is a bad strategy in my opinion. Using this method, finishing Being and Time could take months. Instead simply move along at a slow but steady pace without worrying about perfect comprehension. This is because Heidegger repeats the major themes in Being and Time throughout the entire book. Perhaps think of reading Being and Time as climbing a steep, treacherous mountain. The highly motivated hiker encounters all sorts of difficulties along the way but keeps moving forward towards the summit. I recommend highly this translation of Being and Time.

In 1996 I bought the John Macquarrie translation of 'Being and Time' by Martin Heidegger and have read it 76 times over the past 20 years. I bought the Joan Stambaugh translation because she translates the greek symbols into english for a better understanding of Heidegger. Back to the conversation. In the beginning I was reading 'Being and Time' as if it was a book and had an author (subject/object thinking). Somewhere around the 70th reading it came to me that there was no book, no printing on the page, and no author. There is no 'subject' (me) or 'object' (the book). The only thing present was me be-ing the conversation that I was already engaged in. Martin Heidegger did a masterful job of laying out the conversation so I didn't miss anything. Be-ing the conversation has allowed me to strip away enough presuppositions forced on me by the entanglement of the world (Heidegger calls it falling) and begin to recognize my own 'thinking'. In 'Being and Time' Heidegger mentions that there is discovering (un-covering) and covering (Covering Your A__ (CYA). 'Falling' into the world's entanglement is how we deny accountability, hide in the crowd, and choose mediocrity (the status quo). By participating in the conversation (reading 'Being and Time') multiple times over 20 years I have 'distanced' myself from the world's entanglement and 4 months after my 70th birthday I'm actually beginning to get a sense of who I am. If you're getting a sense of what I'm talking about then buy the book and engage in your own conversation. In 1996 I typed out the 387-page 'Being and Time', imported it into a Nook e-reader and read 'Being and Time' 76 times over 20 years. I suggest you do the same. However, I implore you to get a Kindle. The Kindle store has numerous books by Heidegger which you can download including 'Being and Time'. Because the Stambaugh translation does a better job of translating 'Being and Time' I would like to download it to my Kindle Oasis without having to type the book. However, the Stambaugh translation isn't available for Kindle yet. If you're reading this you are on the product page for the book. Could you scroll up (or down) to "Product Details" (on the left side of the page) and then look over to the right side of the page and find "Tell the Publisher!" and click on "I'd like to read this book on Kindle". Maybe, together we can make this happen

To further my philosophical understanding and insight. Mind you, there is a lot of depth in this book, but the more one reads it the more it unfolds and provides light on his points on dasein and the nature it presents.

<[email protected]> I am Germanless, but in comparing this translation to MacQuarrie and Robinson I find 1)Stambaugh is easier to read with a free flow in her English which however at times leads to indefinieness; 2) Stambaugh will sometimes come to a more definite and clearer conclusion than M&R, but then sometimes the reverse; 3) Stambaugh has an excellent index organized much like M&R's with a few headings M&R does not have BUT it has NO German index as M&R has; 4) Stambaugh has the later marginal comments Heidegger made that M&R does not. However, sometimes M&R has a formulation that seems more precise and more like Heidegger than Stambaugh. M&R also has footnotes on the translation that are sometimes crucial to understanding what is going on in the main text. And it English index has a few headings not found in Stambaugh as well as having a German word index. Having BOTH translations, and being able to compare them, can be an emense help in understanding Heidegger.

Just received this item, pristine conditions, very legible print, now I’m ready to start this journey through phenomenology.

Actually haven't read it yet because i got bogged down reading a very controversial book by his mistress and lover, Hannah Arendt, about banal nature of evil, most particularly in the person of Eichmann. The book was put together from a series of articles she had written covering Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem. Apparently a good many in the Jewish community did not like her tone. I on the other hand, think it is a quite well written book that shows that people can be quite monstrous without looking so. This guys looks and acts like an ordinary shoe clerk who mistakenly wandered off the street into SS headquarters and without any particular animus against Jews, he insists, thought it looked like a fun place to work, better than selling shoes or whatever.

Heidegger is already fairly dense to begin with, but I think this translation does a great job. Personally, I found this particular translation significantly easier to read than the older Macquarrie/Robinson version. Additionally, the kindle Text-To-Speech function is extremely helpful. Reading really good philosophy always gave me a headache and made the going rather slow. But reading on my kindle, with the Text-To-Speech function in tandem, allows me to get through a heavy text like this in A SINGLE DAY!! I feel like a philosophical-cyborg. :P

Excellent condition!