WHAT CALLED THINKING PB

A statement by Parmenides consisting of only 5 seminal words is explained from this Thinker's perspective with such affection, grace and love towards each word; it is sheer poetry which resonates in the mind of the reader day and night, whether awake or asleep; it suffuses one's dreams and makes all other analysis of Presence, Being, To Be, Is, appear redundant. For the sheer orgasmic pleasure attainable by human thought, one must read this work. It is a collection of Heidegger's lectures given in his native German, this makes the understanding of such abstruse thought easy. Finally, one must express gratitude to the Translator, who attended the said lectures in person and has translated in consultation with the Thinker, for this magnificent work made available to readers on English. He is to be commended with the same adjectives as the Thinker, because without his loving and painstaking effort, we would have been bereft of the such a wonder of human thought.

Heidegger is my favorite philosopher. This compiles some of his lectures with the initial speech and then moves into notes. Lots of short anecdotes, easy to follow and a lot to think about.

This book will make you sweat, make you wonder if Heidegger finally lost his marbles, but most of all make you think. If you are willing to do a little mental bench-pressing, get out of your rut of how philosophy should be written, and meditatively contemplate what he is saying... then this mine is worth digging for the intellectual gold you will receive.

Like all Heidegger's works, difficult but repays effort. Proves, somewhat disturbingly (?), that you can be a (sort-o) Nazi and yet also a great philosopher at the same time.

I am working my way through this series of lectures the Professor gave in the 1950's. His work in the area of metaphysics and his commitment to this philosophy is breathtaking. I am a novice with respect to philosophy and I read Prof. Heidegger's thought humbly, recognizing his immense intellect and his treatment of philosophic thought. According to this books introduction, as a lecturer and teacher, Professor Heidegger naturally approaches this profession as a vocation. Academic freedom afforded him as a scholar and lecturer provides him full reign of thoughtful literature which he has studied and then interprets for us, his students. His efforts at making metaphysics applicable to ordinary life moves and inspires me. The connections he makes between notable thinkers is impassioned and reading through this work is something of a mosaic, as he maintains his life long focus, metaphysics, and relates it to the great thinkers he contemplates

MH has a lot to say about our post-modern, high-technology lives. These essays are not that difficult to read -- once you understand these are translations from German, Heidegger does not know English and uses a lot of German colloquial phrases, and he's a fanatic, in a good way, about the etymology of words that we throw around with careless ease. Approach it a bit like poetry, take a couple of days to get used to the pace and repetition, and you're off to quite a thoughtful experience.