Rants & Observations

Heidegger, Being, and Truth by Laszlo Versenyi

Being someone that realizes that truth is in the eye of the beholder and that facts are what a specific culture says are facts, I read Versenyi's analysis with considerable interest. Heidegger's views of philosophy are extremely interesting during the early phase of his writings but the writings during the later phases of his life in my opinion border on those of a religious zealot.

Versenyi presents this all as being firmly a part of the Western philosophical tradition. Unfortunately, much of Versenyi's analysis is academia-speak written to impress other academicians and not designed to simplify and improve an understanding of the material. It is here that Versenyi's book fails to provide an approachable explanation of Heidegger's works.

The early chapters point out Heidegger's debt to Plato, Kant, and Hegel. Versenyi's discussion of Heidegger's Being and Time is outstanding. I particularly enjoyed the comparisons of Heidegger's works with the Cartesian world view, the Kantian critique, and Neitzche's Metaphysics. All of these philosophical approaches fail, however, in that they attempt to impose an objective structure of fact and truth upon a subjective world view and reality.

The last phase of Heidegger's writings, according to Versenyi, attempted to transcend metaphysics by imposing a god-like view of philosophy on the part of Heidegger. The reality, or at least the one that I live is, suggests that Heidegger, in his later years began to seek a reason for existence and unable to turn to religion as most elderly individuals do, he created his own religion with himself as chief prophet and savior.

Versenyi should not have spent the last chapter of his book trying to find a way to justify Heidegger's works with traditional philosophy but rather should have analyzed Heidegger's works from a psychoanalyitical viewpoint.

Despite the academia-speak, I enjoyed the majority of this book. Reading should stretch one's limits from time to time and I felt this book did just that for me. It reminded me just how much fun reading scholarly works of a variety of disciplines can be. If you have the time and the interest I recommend it whole heartedly.

posted by Paul @ 3:34 PM