This volume comprises the lecture course that Heidegger gave in 1941 on the metaphysics of German Idealism. The first part of the lecture course contains a preliminary consideration of the distinction between ground and existence. The elucidation of the conceptual history includes a striking confrontation with Kierkegaard’s and Jaspers’ concepts of existence, as well as an elucidation of the concept of existence in Being and Time, which Heidegger distinguishes from the former concepts. Heidegger’s self-interpretation is not an end in itself, however, but rather a way of pointing to Schelling’s distinction between ground and existence, whose root and inner necessity and whose various versions Heidegger discusses subsequently.
The second part of the lecture course is focused on Schelling’s “freedom treatise,” which Heidegger regards as the pinnacle of the metaphysics of German Idealism. Heidegger’s consideration of Schelling’s distinction between ground and existence finds its guiding thread in the introduction of the realms of being – eternal or finite, each being is a joining of the ground of existence and existence itself. In a subsequent overview, Heidegger discusses the relation of the distinction between ground and existence to the essence of human freedom and to the essence of the human. On the basis of this discussion, it becomes possible to grasp the connection between freedom and evil in Schelling’s system.
This important work by Heidegger, published here in English for the first time, will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy and to anyone interested in Heidegger’s work.
Arvustused
Unlike the course he offered on the same subject five year earlier, Heideggers 1941 lectures on Schellings freedom essay demonstrate his decisive break from metaphysics, including German Idealism, and allow us to see more clearly the radical reorientation of his later thought. No less fascinating is the large portion of the present volume devoted to an interpretation of Kierkegaards concept of existence and its relation to the (so-called) existentialism of Being and Time. This excellent translation is a must read for students and scholars alike. Taylor Carman, Barnard College
Heideggers lecture course from 1941 not only attempts a new interpretation of Schellings essay on the essence of human freedom, extending his 1936 treatment of that same text, but contains a wealth of material on Heideggers ongoing reflections on the history of metaphysics and an important series of elucidations of Being and Time. This careful and sensitive translation will not only be of great interest to scholars of German Idealism, but is essential reading for anyone following Heideggers own philosophical development. William McNeill, DePaul University
Translators Introduction
INTRODUCTION
THE NECESSITY OF A HISTORICAL THINKING
§
1. Schellings Treatise as the Peak of the Metaphysics of German Idealism
§
2. Historical Thinking, Historiographic Explanation, Systematic
Reflection
§
3. Elucidations of the Title of the Treatise
§
4. The Organization of the Treatise
§
5. Brief Excursus on a Further Misgiving (the Historiographic the
Current That Which Has Been)
PART I
PRELIMINARY REFLECTION ON THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN GROUND AND EXISTENCE
§
6. The Core Section of the Treatise: The Distinction between Essence
Insofar as It Exists and Essence Insofar as it Is Merely Ground of Existence
§
7. The Organization of the Preliminary Reflection
First
Chapter
The Conceptual-Historical Elucidation of Ground and Existence
§
8. Essentia and Existentia
§
9. Existence and Philosophy of Existence (K. Jaspers)
§
10. Kierkegaards Concept of Existence
§
11. Kierkegaard, Philosophy of Existence, and Being and Time (1927)
a) What Occasion Is There for Classifying Being and Time as Philosophy of
Existence?
) Analytic of Existence
) Existence As Understood in the Sense of Kierkegaards Restriction of
It
) Philosophy of Anxiety, of the Nothing, of Death, of Care . . .
) Philosophical Anthropology
b) Rejection of the Classification of Being and Time as Philosophy of
Existence by Way of an Elucidation of the Concepts of Existence and Da-sein
(Elucidations of Being and Time)
) Existence and Dasein as Meaning Actuality in General (As Understood in
Traditional Usage of Language)
) Dasein as the Bodily-Psychic-Rational Being-Actual of the Human, and
Existence as the Subjectivity of Self-Being (Jaspers)
) Existentiell and Existential Concepts of Existence
) Understanding of Being as the Decisive Determination of Dasein and
Existence in Being and Time
) Dasein, Temporality, and Time
) Temporality, Da-sein, Existence
) Anxiety, Death, Guilt, the Nothing within the Realm of Questioning in
Being and Time
) The Essence of Da-sein
) Understanding of Being, and Being
) Being and the Human Anthropomorphism
§
12. Preliminary Interpretation of Schellings Concept of Existence
§
13. The Inceptive Impetuses Determining the Essence of Ground and Their
Historical Transformation
Second
Chapter
The Root of Schellings Distinction between Ground and Existence
§
14. Elucidation of the Essential Determination of Being as Willing
a) The Essential Predicates of Being
) Ground-lessness
) Eternity
) Independence from Time
) Self-Affirmation
b) Justification of the Predicates of Being
c) In What Way Willing Is Sufficient for the Predicates of Being
d) Being in Its Highest and Ultimate Jurisdiction
§
15. Being as Willing as the Root of the Distinction between Ground and
Existence
Third
Chapter
The Inner Necessity of Schellings Distinction between Ground and Existence
Fourth
Chapter
The Various Formulations of Schellings Distinction between Ground and
Existence
§
16. The Proper Aim of the Interpretation of the Freedom Treatise: Reaching
the Fundamental Position of the Metaphysics of German Idealism. Evil and the
System
§
17. Transition from the Preliminary Reflection to the Interpretation of
the Core Section of the Treatise and of the Latter Itself
PART II
AN INTERPRETATION OF THE CORE SECTION, THE ELUCIDATION OF THE DISTINCTION
BETWEEN GROUND AND EXISTENCE
§
18. The Elucidation of the Distinction as the Presentation of Beings as
a Whole (God, World, Human)
First
Chapter
The Reflection that Takes God as a Starting Point
§
19. The Direct Elucidation: The Presentation of the Being of Beings in
God. Philosophy as Unconditional Knowledge of the Absolute in Contrast to
Theology and Mathematics. The Various Senses of the Word Nature
a) Philosophy and Theology
b) Philosophy and Mathematics
c) The Concept of the Absolute in Schelling and Hegel
§
20. The Analogical Elucidation: Presentation of the Correspondence Between
the Stations of the Being of the Absolute
§
21. The Circularity of the Distinction Between Ground and Existence
§
22. Summary of What Was Said about the Distinction in God
§
23. Excursus: The Unconditional Precedence of the Certainty (That Is to
Say, Concurrently: the Beingness) of the Absolute
Second
Chapter
The Reflection that Takes its Point of Departure from Things
§
24. The Ground in God as Originary Yearning
§
25. Creation as Formation through the Imagination; the Creature as
Image
Third
Chapter
The Reflection that Takes its Point of Departure from the Human
§
26. The Necessity of Creation and the Essence of the Human as the Proper
Creature in which God Himself Reveals Himself
§
27. Human Will as Divine Glimpse of Life and Seed of God
CONCLUSION
OVERVIEW
§ 28 The Distinction and the Essence of Freedom and of Human Freedom in
Particular
§ 29 The Distinction in its Full Essence
§
30. The Distinction and the Essence of the Human
§
31. The Essence of Evil
§
32. Evil and the System
§
33. The System and the Truth (Certainty) of Beings as a Whole
§
34. What Confrontation Means with Respect to Metaphysics
RECAPITULATIONS AND COURSE OF THE INTERPRETATION
Recapitulation of 14 January
Recapitulation of 21 January
Recapitulation of 28 January
Recapitulation of 4 February
Recapitulation of 11 February
Recapitulation of 18 February
Recapitulation of 25 February
Recapitulation of 4 March
Recapitulation of 11 March
APPENDIX
Preliminary Glimpses and Directives
Transitional Reflection on Hegel
The Confrontation with the Metaphysics of German Idealism and with
Metaphysics in General
Supplement (Leibniz)
GermanEnglish Glossary
EnglishGerman Glossary
Greek/LatinEnglish Lexicon
MARTIN HEIDEGGER (18891976) was one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century and the author of numerous works including Being and Time.
