An Introduction to Metaphysics

Publishing such western classics will benefit the scholars

Like all Heidegger's works, difficult but repays effort. Proves, somewhat disturbingly (?), that you can be a (sort-o) Nazi and yet also a great philosopher at the same time.

I am not a philosopher or a philosophy student but enjoyed reading this book because: 1. It shows cases some pretty original thinking. 2. The question "why there are beings and nothing at all " is eternal although in today's world many people think there is only the theory of evolution and other "zoological" explanations to this question.Heidegger shows how this question can be posed in way that shows "what" it means to be even if we we know "how"(i.e. evolution, natural selection etc.) we came to be. 3. The whole book is really about clarifying the question and trying to unbundle all the preconceptions about the question.Only towards the end we get a glimmer about what could be the start of an answer. 4. Heidegger is an eloquent writer and this must in large measure must be due to the translator's competence. 5.Yes, there are many reference to Greek words and poems and one does have to read many sections twice but the scope of the book is sweeping so the rewards of a second or third read are well worth it. 6.At the least you will question the familiarity of many words and their everday usage after you read the book and that should hopefully help you think more clearly and equally (if not more importantly, after reading Heidegger..)articulate yourself clearly.

You really have to be dedicated to read this book. Heidegger is the most obscure philosopher going. He does at least repeat himself, so you sometimes get the sense that "I think I've grasped that." Apparently, it's a condensed version of Being and Time. Good luck if you want to read that one. If you want to dabble in Heidegger, read his essay "What is Metaphysics?" It's just as obscure as everything else, but at least it's short.

Clear conscience information

Introduction to Metaphysics is based on a lecture course Martin Heidegger presented at the University of Freiburg in 1935. Unlike in some other publications, Heidegger gets to the point straight away by asking rhetorically "why are there beings at all instead of nothing?" And much of the subsequent exposition is mostly tightly reasoned, always referring back to the question, "why are there beings at all instead of nothing?" Still it took me several readings to comprehend "fully" the question and its implications. If you are new to Heidegger but find his prose exceedingly difficult to follow, stick with it nevertheless! For me, Heidegger's work is not merely an intellectual exercise or armchair philosophizing. Heidegger has given me a new pair of glasses through which I perceive and experience my environment: a deeper and richer experience of "being in the world."