Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Life and Accomplishments


Martin Heidegger was born in in 1889 in Messkirch, Germany, where he was raised to a Catholic parentage. At an early age he became a Jesuit priest, but soon his life took another turn as the war came calling and he was sent to the front to fight in World War I. After Heidegger’s return, he took up to study philosophy at the University of Freiburg, where he received his doctorate for a thesis on the medieval philosopher Johannes Duns Scotus. Between 1916 and 1923 He taught at Freiburg University. Later, he got interested in studying Martin Luther, John Calvin and others which led Heidegger’s religious believes to brake away. He broke with his prior beliefs in Catholicism by marrying a Lutheran, Elfride Petri in 1917. After that he spent the next four years at the University of Marburg as a professor. Heidegger’s first book was Being and Time written in 1927. His book emphasized and questioned “the meaning of being” and distinguished what an authentic and unauthentic life is about. He interpreted his view of time and how it related with humans. The chart below shows the main ideas of the book that Heidegger discusses. This work was one of his greatest; it showed great existentialism and till this day Heidegger is remembered as a philosopher of existentialism.

In 1930’s Heidegger supported Nazis and therefore this influenced his teachings. He became a Nazi fanatic, hurting many people, especially Edmund Husserl, a Jew, who had helped Heidegger launch his career. After World War II, Heidegger was taken to a war crime’s court and all that he could say was, “He who thinks greatly must err greatly”(Heidegger, np). French troops that prosecuted and interrogated Heidegger slapped him with a five-year ban from teaching. Disillusioned, hurt and depressed at one point, Heidegger tried to commit suicide; finally he was dispatched to a sanatorium where he eventually recovered. Many found Heidegger a great philosopher and thinker of our times but at the same time without any feelings and emotions. In 1978 Heidegger died.

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