Jessica Rugh
Dr. Duane Davis
Phil 352
24 September 2008

Kockelmans, Joseph J., Editor. A Companion to Martin Heidegger’s “Being and Time”. USA: University Press of America, Inc., 1986.

This book is a collection of essays by writers seeking to explore, clarify, and criticize topics and issues presented in Being and Time. In the introduction to the anthology Kockelmans points out that this is not a commentary or a summary of Being and Time. Instead, it is meant to “point to issues with which the reader should be familiar if he or she is to understand Heidegger’s text correctly” (p.xi). In the introduction Kockelmans also provides a short summary of Being and Time as well as a brief synopsis of each of the essays included in the collection. The text also includes an extensive bibliography (of the works cited in the essays) that could serve as a source of useful suggestions for further research.
There are twelve essays by twelve different authors in this anthology, one of which is by Kockelmans himself. As I was unable to read them all, I will report on those I did and only list the others.

1. “Signification and Radical Subjectivity in Heidegger’s Habilitationsschrift” by Roderick M. Stewart.

2. “Heidegger’s Early Lecture Courses” by Theodore J. Kisiel.
This essay examines the importance of the early lecture courses that contributed to Heidegger’s thought in Being and Time. Kisiel believes that “the importance of these earliest courses cannot be overestimated” (p.22) as they form the foundation of the progression of Heidegger’s thought throughout his career.
He begins by describing methods for obtaining transcripts of the lectures…student notes translated from shorthand, paraphrased summaries of the lectures, even notes copied in longhand during the lecture itself…these are what we have today as our manuscripts of Heidegger’s lectures. Kisiel then draws attention to the fact that there are discrepancies between Heidegger’s published curriculum vitae and what Heidegger himself was citing about the dates of his works. The student transcripts, or Nachschriften, can be useful in “setting the record straight” (p.26). Kisiel then provides some suggestions for the discrepancies.
The essay then shifts topics to a separate section titled, “Is the Return to Origins Scientific or ‘Historical’?” In this section, Kisiel traces the development of major terms and ideas from Heidegger’s early lectures to major works such as Being and Time. These include Dasein, Zu-sein, facticity, hermeneutics, and Existenz (p.29). He concludes the article by reiterating that the importance of the early lecture courses is based on the fact that they are the developmental stages of the major issues presented in Heidegger’s later works.
This essay was very easy to read and provides an interesting and concise description of some of Heidegger’s early works and their connections to his later works. This source could be a good starting reference for further research on the development of Heidegger’s ideas throughout his career.

3. “Heidegger’s ‘Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion’, 1920-1921” by Thomas J. Sheehan.

4. “Heidegger and Husserl’s Logical Investigations. In Remembrance of Heidegger’s Last Seminar…” by Jacques Taminiaux.

5. “The Origins of Heidegger’s Thought” by John Sallis.
This essay seeks to answer the question “what are the origins of Heidegger’s thought?” Sallis identifies three distinct concepts or levels of origin that will contribute to our understanding of the origin of Heidegger’s thought. These are: 1) the historical origin; 2) the original or basic issue and how it serves as origin; and 3) that which grants philosophical thought its content (p. 91). Sallis then divides the remaining portion of the essay into individual exposition of each of these three concepts.
The historical origin is taken to be the earlier thinkers who “served to set Heidegger’s thought on its way” (p.91). Sallis targets Husserl’s phenomenology as the historical origin of influence for Heidegger. He then includes a brief description of phenomenology and shows how Being and Time employs a type of phenomenology for its goals. Other historical influences on Heidegger’s thought were the Greek philosophers, namely Plato and Aristotle (p.94).
The second concept of origin is the more basic sense of origin, or “the issue from which originates Heidegger’s approach to other issues” (p.97). Sallis identifies this issue as “disclosedness”. He believes that disclosedness is exemplified as the original issue in Being and Time in Heidegger’s understanding and use of the concept of Dasein. Before moving on to the next section Sallis explains a terminology shift evident in Heidegger’s later works: the use of the term “alethia”, which has more of a sense of truth, instead of “disclosedness” (p.99).
The third sense of origin is a “radicalizing” of the concept of origin. Sallis argues that Dasein must be allowed to disclose itself so that philosophical analysis can identify original truth as the origin of thought.
This essay could be helpful for strengthening the understanding of Dasein. It was well written, though difficult to work through at times, but could serve as a useful secondary source for grasping the project of Being and Time.

6. “Husserl, Heidegger and the Question of a ‘Hermeneutic’ Phenomenology” by John D. Caputo.

7. “Heidegger and the Destruction of Ontology” by Samuel IJsseling.
In this essay IJsseling seeks to clarify Heidegger’s phenomenology, particularly his use of the word “destruction.” IJsseling identifies three basic components that characterize phenomenology. These are: 1) the phenomenological reduction, or the “leading back from beings to Being”; 2) the phenomenological construction, or the “projection of pregiven beings against the background of their Being and the structures of their Being”; and 3) the phenomenological destruction, or the “critical dismantling” of concepts handed down to us (p.128-129).
IJsseling connects Heidegger’s phenomenological destruction to Husserl’s epochē but points out differences between their uses. “Destruction does not mean demolishing or destroying” but rather signifies a “freeing of oneself from the tradition stock of ontological concepts” (p.130). For IJsseling, the meaning of destruction is still ambiguous. The rest of the essay is divided into two sections with the goal of elaborating and attempting to clarify the problems associated with Heidegger’s conception of destruction.
In my opinion, this essay contained an excessive amount of quotes that made reading difficult. On the other hand, IJsseling could have included so many quotes in order to get Heidegger’s meaning across better than would be possible with paraphrasing. This essay could be useful while reading later sections of Being and Time and also for furthering the understanding of Heidegger’s ontology.

8. “Being-True as the Basic Determination of Being” by Joseph J. Kockelmans.
The goal of this essay is to examine and clarify Heidegger’s interpretation of Aristotle’s conception of truth in order to contribute to the understanding of the problem of the conception of the question of Being in relation to the question of alethia. More specifically, Kockelmans is seeking to make the connection between Heidegger’s 1920’s conception of the question concerning the meaning of Being with his later conception of alethia. He points out that Heidegger seemed to avoid discussing his own opinions about truth and instead focused his lectures and writings on exploring historical and critical interpretations, perhaps because he was “not yet completely ready” to share his own ideas (p.146).
Kockelmans then points out main differences between the ideas about truth presented in Heidegger’s 1925 lecture on truth (Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Zeitbegriffs) and Being and Time. He then includes a short summary (p.148-150) of “On the Essence of Truth” (an essay by Heidegger published in 1930). This is followed by a summary of “On the Essence of Human Freedom”, a lecture on the relationship between truth and freedom, also from 1930. Kockelmans provides a detailed analysis of Heidegger on Aristotle based on passages from this lecture and Aristotle’s Metaphysics. He also points out some of the apparent contradictions in the work and includes others’ solutions/suggestions about the problems as well as proposes his own. He concludes by claiming that his examination of Heidegger’s different approaches to the question of the meaning of being between 1925 and 1930 show that there was “very little development in Heidegger’s thinking with respect to his conception of truth” (p.157).
This essay was well written and easy to read. It would be most helpful for information on the development of Heidegger’s thought through time, not necessarily on enlightening any of the specific concepts themselves, though it does provide good descriptions and comparison analysis of some of the more important topics in Being and Time.

9. “Heidegger and the Quest of Freedom” by William J. Richardson.

10. “The Concept of Time in Heidegger’s Early Works” by Marion Heinz.

11. “Ekstatic Temporality in Sein und Zeit” by Graeme Nicholson.
This essay focuses on concept of Time in Heidegger’s works, not just in Being and Time. Nicholson points out that the study of Heidegger’s conception of ideas has been primarily on Dasein and Being. He wants to focus on an analysis of the themes of Temporality and Time but does not seek to push for a separation or prioritizing of the concepts.
Nicholson conducts his investigation by dividing his work into different sections. The first of these is “Dasein and Care” wherein he identifies three components of care that are important in the understanding of Temporality. The first component is known by two different names (Verstehen, or projection, and Existenzialitat, or existentiality). Nicholson defines Verstehen as a power of disclosure in us, whereas Existenzialitat is that which becomes disclosed by projection (p.210). The second component of care is also referred to by two names. Befindlichkeit, or affectivity, and Faktizitat, or facticity. Befindlichkeit is, for Nicholson, a mode of disclosure that qualifies all of Dasein’s projecting. Moods are an aspect of this. Faktizitat is also a mode of disclosure (p.211). The third component of care is Verfallen. Nicholson seems to gloss over the definition of this term, saying that it is “colorful” and that it “summons up images of the fall of man…and of the collapse and decline of civilization,” though Heidegger himself denied these shadings of the term (p.211). He decides to define it as “Dasein’s constant compromise” since Dasein is always at risk of being diverted, to conform, or to become compromised (p.211).
Nicholson then develops the relationship between these three terms and how they relate to temporality in the remaining section of the essay. He also suggests ways of reading Heidegger's works with these concepts in minds and provides very detailed, paragraph-by-paragraph analyses of different works concerning temporality and care. His exploration of temporality leads him to point out parts of temporality known as “ekstases” (p.216). Ekstasis can be understood as “being placed out of self” or “displacement” (p. 220). Though Heidegger doesn’t explicitly state it, Nicholson believes that you can infer from his word choice that “whatever is touched by temporality, or participates in it, will acquire some degree of ekstasis from it” (p.220). He provides further elaboration of this sense of ekstasis presented in Being and Time. Nicholson ends the article by making conclusions about Dasein’s relation to ekstases, namely that the interplay of the different ekstases cannot by foreseen by Dasein, and encourages the reader to explore the nature of ekstasis itself.
This essay was especially difficult because of the large number of German words included in the body of the text. It could serve as a good source for anyone seeking to do an in-depth study of the Time aspect of Being and Time.

12. “Metaphysics and Topology of Being in Heidegger” by Otto Poggeler.

Overall, I think A Companion to Martin Heidegger’s ‘Being and Time’ is a practical compilation of essays pertaining to Heidegger’s Being and Time. The topics of each essay range greatly, but individually and as a collection they can contribute helpful and insightful information for a deeper understanding of Being and Time and Heidegger’s philosophical project as a whole. The main drawback, at this point at least, is that most of the essays draw extensively on sections of Being and Time that we have not yet read for class and site other works by Heidegger that I am unfamiliar with. All of the essays also frequently use the original German terminology, so it may also be helpful to have a background in German if you are going to use any of these articles for serious research, or at least have a German dictionary handy!