Phi. 600:  Heidegger

                                      Fall, 2004 - Syracuse University

                                                 Dr. John D. Caputo

                                                    Required Text

(1)  Heidegger, Being and Time, Macquarrie-Robinson translation (Blackwell ppbk.)

(2)  Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings, ed. David Krell (Harper & Row ppbk.)

                                                    Reserve Room

(1)  Heidegger, Being and Time, Joan Stambaugh translation (SUNY Press) [I will use

Macquarrie-Robinson in class, but it is worth having Stambaugh to compare with it.

(2)  Theodore Kisiel, The Genesis of _Being and Time_ (University of California Press);

(3)  John van Buren, The Young Heidegger (Indiana University Press)

(4)  John D. Caputo, Radical Heremeneutics (Indiana University Press

(5)  _____.  Demythologizing Heidegger (Indiana University Press

(6)  Hubert Dreyfus, Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Being and Time (MIT ppbk.)

                                               Course Requirements

These papers should be approximately 4,500-5,000 words long.  It should be prepared in accordance with a standard style sheet and should be correctly documented (notes and bibliography).

The first paper may address any issue in Being and Time, Introduction and Part One, and is due November 12.

The second paper may address any issue in Being and Time, Part Two or Letter on Humanism.  I have no problem with your taking an official Aincomplete@ (which will be without prejudice) and handing the work in to me by January 7, 2005.  If you want to get it into me in time to avoid an incomplete, feel free to do so.

Bibliographical assistance is available on line in the library.  Philosopher's Index is the best place to start.  I have also put several books on reserve n the Bird Library for your use.

Keep in touch with me by email about developing a topic and of course feel free to make an appointment to discuss your research.

                                                   Office (HL 431)

Although I have scheduled office hoursBTuesday, 3:00-5:00, Wednesday, 1:00-3:00Byou should, for safety's sake, make an appt by email at johncaputo@comcast.net or jcaputo@syr.edu.

Topic

There is no circumventing Heidegger. He stands with Wittgenstein as one of the towering figures of 20^th century European philosophy. He has not only dominated continental thought but has become a major voice in American philosophical work as well. Any properly enriched and thick appreciation of what is going on in contemporary philosophy will have taken Heidegger into account. I will undertake in this course an intensive, sequential study of the text of Being and Time, arguably and for many people the most important single book of European philosophy of the 20^th century. Heidegger=s 1927 classic set the parameters within which his own later thinking and the subsequent history of continental philosophy unfolded and it has widely influenced American writers as well. His critique of Descartes (and of 17^th and 18^th century epistemology generally) in the light of his idea of Abeing-in-the-world,@ his reinscription of the Apure transcendental@ version of phenomenology developed by Husserl into a Ahermeneutic@ phenomenology, his analyses of mood and anxiety, of truth and death, of authenticity and inauthenticity, of temporality and historicity, and above all his raising of Athe question of the meaning of Being@ and the Adestruction of the history of ontology@ are the basis for all work in continental philosophy thereafter. I will make use of the older Macquarie-Robinson translation in class, but I recommend owning the Stambaugh translation for reference and comparison.

In 1947, Heidegger= published AA Letter on Humanism,@ which disputed the widely held Aexistentialist@ reading of Being and Time and revealed to the world outside those who had not heard his lectures during the war the new direction upon which the Alater@ Heidegger was striking by way of a surprising reinterpretation of Being and Time. This text set the stage for the post-structuralist appropriation of Heidegger. I will spend about two weeks on this text.

                                                       SYLLABUS

September     1      Introduction: ''1-5

                        8   Introduction: ''6-8;  Division I. Chapter 1 (''9-11)

15      I. 2 (''12-13);   I.3 (''14-18)

22      I. 3 (''18-24)

29      I. 4

October         6      I. 5 (28-32)

13      I. 5 (33-38)

20      I. 6

27      Division II, '45, Chapter 1

November      3      II. 2

10      II. 3

17      II. 5

24      Thanksgiving

December      1      A Letter on Humanism, Basic Writings, pp. 213-39

  8      A Letter on Humanism, Basic Writings, pp. 240-65