At the Existentialist Café (53 page)

27
  Converting and later career: Borden,
Edith Stein
, 6–10.

Chapter 3: The Magician from Messkirch

1
    ‘For manifestly’: BT, 19/1. The quotation is from Plato’s
The Sophist
, 244A, where it appears in a discussion of the word ‘to be’. Heidegger taught a lecture course on
The Sophist
at Marburg in 1924–5, attended by Hannah Arendt among others: see Heidegger,
Plato’s Sophist
, tr. R. Rojcewicz & A. Schuwer (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997).

2
    ‘The sky
is
blue’ and ‘I
am
happy’: BT, 23/4 (giving ‘merry’); Heidegger,
Being and Time
, tr. Stambaugh, 3 (giving ‘happy’).

3
    Why is there anything?: Gottfried von Leibniz, ‘The Principles of Nature and Grace, Based on Reason’ (1714), in
Discourse on Metaphysics and Other Writings
, ed. P. Loptson, tr. R. Latta & G. R. Montgomery, rev. P. Loptson (Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2012), 103–13, this 108–9 (paragraph 7).

4
    ‘The great master of astonishment’ and ‘put a radiant obstacle’: Steiner,
Martin Heidegger
, 158.

5
    Praise: BT, 62/38; dedication: BT, 5.

6
    Brentano’s thesis:
Heidegger, ‘A Recollection (1957)’, in Sheehan (ed.),
Heidegger: the man and the thinker
, 21–2, this 21. The thesis: Franz Brentano,
On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle
, tr. Rolf George (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).

7
    Heidegger siblings: Marie Heidegger, born 1891, grew up to marry a chimney sweep, and died in 1956. On her and on Heidegger’s mother, see F. Schalow & A. Denker,
Historical Dictionary of Heidegger’s Philosophy
, 2nd edn (London: Scarecrow, 2010), 134. Fritz was born in 1894.

8
    Bells: Heidegger, ‘Vom Geheimnis des Glockenturms’, in his GA, 13 (Aus
der Erfahrung des Denkens
, 113–16); also see Heidegger, ‘The Pathway’, in Sheehan (ed.),
Heidegger: the man and the thinker
, 69–72, this 71; and Safranski,
Martin Heidegger
, 7. For other early memories, see Heidegger, ‘My Way to Phenomenology’, tr. Stambaugh, in
On Time and Being
, 74–82.

9
    Cooper: the list is from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_(profession)
.

10
  Collecting wood, etc.: Heidegger, ‘The Pathway’, in Sheehan (ed.),
Heidegger: the man and the thinker
, 69–72, this 69.

11
  Glass globe, etc.: Heidegger,
Letters to his Wife
, 5 (13 Dec. 1915).

12
  Path and bench: Heidegger, ‘The Pathway’, in Sheehan (ed.),
Heidegger: the man and the thinker
, 69–72, this 69.

13
  Meeting people’s eyes: Löwith,
My Life in Germany
, 45.

14
  ‘Martin?’: Gadamer interviewed in
Human, All Too Human
(BBC, 1999), episode 2.

15
  Borrowing
Logical Investigations
: Safranski,
Martin Heidegger
, 25; Ott,
Heidegger
, 57.

16
  Hermann Heidegger: his letter in Heidegger,
Letters to his Wife
, 317.

17
  
Symphilosopheín
: Kisiel & Sheehan,
Becoming Heidegger
, 357 (Husserl to Heidegger, 30 Jan. 1918).

18
  ‘O your youth’: ibid., 359 (Husserl to Heidegger, 10 Sept. 1918).

19
  Postscripts and chatterbox: ibid., 361 (Husserl to Heidegger, 10 Sept. 1918).

20
  Marvelling: see Ott,
Heidegger
, 181 (Husserl to Pfänder, 1 Jan. 1931).

21
  ‘Phenomenological child’: Jaspers, ‘On Heidegger’, 108–9.

22
  ‘I truly had the feeling’: Kisiel & Sheehan,
Becoming Heidegger
, 325 (Heidegger to Husserl, 22 Oct. 1927).

23
  ‘Foggy hole’: Ott,
Heidegger
, 125.

24
  Todtnauberg hut: see Sharr,
Heidegger’s Hut
. Sharr also wrote about
Heidegger’s town house: Sharr, ‘The Professor’s House: Martin Heidegger’s house in Freiburg-im-Breisgau’, in Sarah Menin (ed.),
Constructing Place: mind and matter
(New York: Routledge, 2003), 130–42.

25
  Rhythm of chopping wood: Arendt & Heidegger,
Letters
, 7 (Heidegger to Arendt, 21 March 1925).

26
  ‘One’s ownmost’ look: Löwith,
My Life in Germany
, 45; also see Petzet,
Encounters and Dialogues
, 12. Gadamer describes him wearing skiing clothes (to give a special lecture on skiing, in Marburg), and says the students called his usual clothes his ‘existential outfit’: Gadamer,
Philosophical Apprenticeships
, 49.

27
  ‘Impenetrable’: Löwith,
My Life in Germany
, 28.

28
  ‘Because he was much more difficult’: Hans Jonas, ‘Heidegger’s resoluteness and resolve’, in Neske & Kettering (eds),
Martin Heidegger and National Socialism
, 197–203, this 198. (A radio interview.)

29
  ‘Breathtaking swirl’ and ‘deep dark clouds’: Gadamer,
Philosophical Apprenticeships
, 48.

30
  ‘Little magician from Messkirch’: Löwith,
My Life in Germany
, 44–5.

31
  Thinking and digging: Arendt, ‘Martin Heidegger at Eighty’, in Murray (ed.),
Heidegger and Modern Philosophy
, 293–303, this 295–6.

32
  ‘A ponderous device’: Daniel Dennett and Asbjørn Steglich-Petersen, ‘The Philosophical Lexicon’, 2008 edn:
http://www.philosophicallexicon.com
.

33
  ‘Masterfully staged’, ‘We do not Heideggerize’ and ‘How can Heidegger’: Georg Picht, ‘The Power of Thinking’, in Neske & Kettering (eds),
Martin Heidegger and National Socialism
, 161–7, this 161, 165–6.

34
  ‘Thinking has come to life’: Arendt, ‘Martin Heidegger at Eighty’, in Murray (ed.),
Heidegger and Modern Philosophy
, 293–303, this 295.

35
  ‘Wordlessly, expectantly’: Safranski,
Martin Heidegger
, 147, quoting Hermann Mörchen’s manuscript ‘Aufzeichnungen’.

36
  Pointing to being: see Heidegger,
Introduction to Metaphysics
, 35. My explanation here owes much to Magda King’s classic
Guide to Heidegger’s Being and Time
, 16.

37
  ‘Ontological difference’: BT, 26/6. Being and beings: English doesn’t have such a convenient pair of terms as German, so translators either use ‘entity’ for
Seiende
or distinguish between ‘being’ and ‘Being’ using the capital letter. Macquarrie & Robinson use both, while Stambaugh uses ‘being’ and ‘beings’ but often adds the German as well.

38
  Vague, preliminary, non-philosophical understanding of Being: BT, 25/6; BT, 35/15.

39
  ‘Ontical’: BT, 71/45ff.

40
  Corbin and
réalité humaine
: Heidegger,
Qu’est-ce que la métaphysique?
, tr. H. Corbin (Paris: Gallimard, 1938).

41
  Spuds, rats: Günter Grass,
Dog Years
, tr. Ralph Manheim (London: Penguin, 1969), 324, 330 (translation amended slightly).

42
  ‘Felt strangeness’: Steiner,
Martin Heidegger
, 11.

43
  Brecht: see Safranski,
Martin Heidegger
, 155.

44
  ‘Awkwardness’: BT, 63/39.

45
  ‘Ahead-of-itself …’: Heidegger,
Being and Time
, tr. Stambaugh, 312/327; Heidegger,
Sein und Zeit
, 327.

46
  Stein: Gertrude Stein,
The Making of Americans: being a history of a family’s progress
(Normal, IL & London: Dalkey Archive Press, 1995). ‘I am always feeling’: 373. ‘Always I am feeling in each one of them’: 383. ‘Can be slimy, gelatinous’: 349. See Janet Malcolm,
Two Lives
(New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2007), 126. (The novel was written between 1902 and 1911, well before Heidegger.)

47
  ‘Everydayness’: BT, 37–8/16; also see BT, 69/43.

48
  Being-in-the-world: BT, 78/52ff.

49
  
Das Hammerding
: Heidegger,
Sein und Zeit
, 69. In translation: BT, 98/69.

50
  Care and concern: BT, 83–4/56–8.

51
  ‘Equipment’: BT, 97/68 translates
das Zeug
as ‘equipment’, but I prefer Stambaugh’s ‘useful thing’: Heidegger,
Being and Time
, tr. Stambaugh, 68/68.

52
  ‘Readiness-to-hand’ vs ‘presence-at-hand’: BT, 98–9/69–70. Stambaugh uses ‘handiness’ for
Zuhandenheit
: Heidegger,
Being and Time
, tr. Stambaugh, 69/69.

53
  Revealing a world: BT, 149/114.

54
  Heidegger’s table: Heidegger,
Ontology: the hermeneutics of facticity
, 69, cited in Aho,
Existentialism
, 39.

55
  
Mitsein
: BT, 149/114.
Mitwelt
: BT, 155/118.

56
  ‘From whom, for the most part’: BT, 154/118.

57
  ‘Deficient’ mode of Being-with: BT, 156–7/120.

58
  Boat: BT, 154/118.

59
  ‘States the obvious’: Safranski,
Martin Heidegger
, 155.

60
  Husserl’s marginalia: ‘Husserl’s Marginal Remarks in Martin Heidegger,
Being and Time
’, in Husserl,
Psychological and Transcendental Phenomenology
and the Confrontation with Heidegger
(
1927–1931
), 258–422, esp. 283 (‘But that is absurd’, on p. 12 of 1927 edn), 419, 422 (interrobangs, on pp. 424 and 437 of 1927 edn). On Husserl’s readings, see Sheehan, ‘Husserl and Heidegger’, in same volume, 1–32, esp. 29. ‘Nonsense!’: Kisiel & Sheehan,
Becoming Heidegger
, 402 (Husserl to Pfänder, 1 Jan. 1931).

61
  ‘Ludicrous’: Kisiel & Sheehan,
Becoming Heidegger
, 372 (Heidegger to Löwith, 20 Feb. 1923). ‘He lives with the mission’: Heidegger & Jaspers,
The Heidegger–Jaspers Correspondence
, 47 (Heidegger to Jaspers, 14 July 1923).

62
  
Encyclopaedia Britannica
: Husserl, ‘ “Phenomenology” (Draft B of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Article), with Heidegger’s Letter to Husserl’, in Kisiel & Sheehan,
Becoming Heidegger
, 304–28. A fuller version with variant drafts: Husserl, ‘The
Encyclopaedia Britannica
article (1927–28)’, in Husserl,
Psychological and Transcendental Phenomenology and the Confrontation with Heidegger
(
1927–1931
), 35–196, including introduction by Sheehan relating the story of their collaboration. The entry, tr. C. V. Salmon, was published in
Encyclopaedia Britannica
, 14th edn (London: Encyclopaedia Britannica Co., 1929). On not expressing themselves clearly: see Heidegger,
Letters to his Wife
, 108 (Martin to Elfride Heidegger, 5 Feb. 1927), and Kisiel & Sheehan,
Becoming Heidegger
, 402 (Husserl to Pfänder, 1 Jan. 1931).

63
  Husserl’s hopes: Kisiel & Sheehan,
Becoming Heidegger
, 401–2 (Husserl to Pfänder, 1 Jan. 1931).

64
  Heidegger’s speech: Heidegger, ‘For Edmund Husserl on his Seventieth Birthday’ (8 April 1929), tr. Sheehan, in Husserl,
Psychological and Transcendental Phenomenology and the Confrontation with Heidegger
(
1927–1931
), 475–7, this 475. Husserl’s speech in reply: Kisiel & Sheehan,
Becoming Heidegger
, 418–20.

65
  ‘An appointed leader’: Kisiel & Sheehan,
Becoming Heidegger
, 402 (Husserl to Pfänder, 1 Jan. 1931).

66
  ‘Common sense’: Friedrich Heinemann quotes him as saying, in 1931, ‘Heidegger moves on the level of common sense’ (
bewegt sich in der die natürlichen Einstellung
). Heinemann,
Existentialism and the Modern Predicament
, 48.

67
  ‘Anthropology’: Husserl, ‘Phenomenology and Anthropology’ (a lecture of June 1931), in Husserl,
Psychological and Transcendental Phenomenology and the Confrontation with Heidegger
(
1927–1931
), 485–500, this 485.

68
  ‘The Being-just-present-at-hand …’: BT, 103/73. German: Heidegger,
Sein und Zeit
, 73.

69
  ‘Slumps toothlessly’: Nicholson Baker,
The Mezzanine
(London: Granta, 1998), 13–14.

70
  ‘The
obstinacy
’: BT, 103–4/74. Lights up the project: BT, 105/75.

71
  Chandos: Hugo von Hofmannsthal, ‘The Letter of Lord Chandos’, tr. Tania & James Stern, in his
The Whole Difference: selected writings
, ed. J. D. McClatchy (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2008), 69–79 (originally published in
Der Tag
, 18–19 Oct. 1902).

72
  Breakdown: for example, Matthew Ratcliffe draws attention to the experience of James Melton, whose account of depression describes a withdrawal in which he cannot work out even how to approach a chair to sit down on it, as the world has ‘lost its welcoming quality’; Heidegger might say he had no
concern
with things. See Melton’s account in Gail A. Hornstein,
Agnes’s Jacket
(New York: Rodale, 2009), 212–13, and Matthew Ratcliffe, ‘Phenomenology as a Form of Empathy’,
Inquiry
55(5) (2012), 473–95. See also cases discussed in Oliver Sacks,
The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat
(London: Picador, 2011).