304 REVIEW ARTICLES Heidegger's Way to Hermeneutic

Home , Emil Lask, Heinrich Rickert, Oskar Becker, Paul Natorp

304 REVIEW ARTICLES

Heidegger's Way to Hermeneutic Phenomenology Martin Heidegger. Zur Bestimmung der Philosophie. 1: Die Idee der Philosophie und das Weltanschauungsproblem. 2: Phänomenologie und transzendentale Wertphilosophie. Mit einer Nachschrift der Vorlesung Über das Wesen der Universität und des academischen Studiums." Gesamtausgabe vol. 56/57, edited by Bernd Heimbüchel. Frankfurt am Main: V. Klostermann, 1987. viii & 218 pp.

1. According to Heidegger's account, Husserl's phenomenology (already by 1909) exercised a fascinating influence on and awakened a "restlessness" in his own mind.' The discovery of "phenomenological seeing," however, does not lead him to a separation from, but rather to a new interpretation of, Aristotle and to a deeper grasp of "Greek thinking, if not indeed of philosophy as such."' Heinrich Rickert-Husserl's predecessor at Freiburg until 1919 and the teacher of Heidegger-a neo-Kantian philosopher, shaped quite substantially Heidegger's early development especially through his seminars dealing with the writings of Emil Lask (who mediates between neo-Kantian philosophy and Husserl, but remains open to the Greeks). Taking the first steps on his path to the question of Being, the young Heidegger becomes critical of both Rickert and Husserl, indeed of the philosophical trends of the times, without forgetting his indebtness to his "masters." Thus Husserl was perceptive in saying that "he (Heidegger) was obviously already into his own thing when he studied my writings."3 Phe- nomenology, for Heidegger, is not a fashionable movement or school of thought; it is "the possibility of thinking," "of corresponding to the claim of what is to be thought"; it is an experience leading to the "matter of thinking" (Sache des Denkens).4 Heidegger's way to and through phenomenology takes him to his own way of thinking, to the hermeneutics of facticity (to the interpretation of the way Dasein is, lives, in the world),5 to hermeneutic phenomenology.6 Although Aristotle was the model (Vorbild) and Kier- kegaard a source of impulse in Heidegger's early search for the genuine nature of philosophy, it was Husserl who taught him how to see, who "inserted" his eyes.' Heidegger's critique of neo-Kantian philosophy during the pre-Marburg (i.e., prior to 1924) teaching activity, in his earliest lecture courses at Freiburg, is a positive critique made possible by his appropriation of Husserl's insights; it constitutes his way to phenomenology, the genesis of his thought by means of questioning the very essence of philosophy. The publication of the texts of Heidegger's two earliest lecture courses at the University of Freiburg given in 1919, under the title Zur Bestimmung der Philosophie, then, makes an indispensable contribution to the understanding of his search for the primordial nature of philosophy, for the way and the 305

"matter" of thinking. The first lecture course entitled "The Idea of Philo- sophy and the Problem of Worldview" was given by him during the War Emergency Semester, 1919 (January 25-April 16; two hours per week). The second lecture course included in the above volume is entitled "Phenomenol- ogy and Transcendental Philosophy of Values." It was given by Heidegger during the Summer Semester, 1919 (one hour per week). During this same semester Heidegger gave yet another course (one hour biweekly) entitled "On the Essence of the University and Academic Studies." The manuscript of this course is lost; the editor, however, included some notes of these lectures taken by Oskar Becker in this volume.' The texts of the two courses mentioned earlier are based on Heidegger's manuscript edited according to the established principles of the Gesamtausgabe. Section twelve of the text of the second lecture course ends abruptly and thus the editor added a transi- tion paragraph from the notes of Josef Brecht prior to the beginning of section thirteen (the last section). As of this time, there are two more early Freiburg lecture courses available in the Gesamtausgabe: Phanomenologische Interpretationen zu Aristotles. Einjührung in die phänomenologischeForschung (Winter Semester, 1921-1922) and Ontologie. Hermeneutik der Faktizitdt (Summer Semester, 1923). These lectures show the gradual progression of Heidegger's way to hermeneutic phenomenology, to the interpretation of the facticity of life and to the deconstruction (Abbau) of the tradition of philosophy.9 This radical "going further" from the speculative, theoretical attitude of neo- Kantian philosophy to the "matter" of thinking disclosed in the pretheoretical, primordial way of knowing in phenomenology is expressed very power- fully in the 1919 lecture courses given by Heidegger as lecturer (Privatdozent) at the University of Freiburg. Thus the reflections that follow are focused on the main insights and elements of the trend of his thought in Zur Bestimmung der Philosophie. 10 2. The main task of the course "The Idea of Philosophy and the Problem of Worldview" is to show the essence of philosophy as primordial science ( Urwissenschaft), as the method (the way) of disclosure of living experience, of the "primordial sphere" (Ursphäre) (pp. 60-61 ) untouched by and given prior to the predominance ( horherrschaft) of the theoretical and theorizing- hypothesizing attitude; it is a search for the method (p. 110) of thinking, for the "matter" of thinking. The development of this understanding of the notion of philosophy includes the following pedagogically structured analysis: a) some introductory considerations on the need to rethink the very idea of philosophy (section 1); b) exposing the absolutization of the theoretical attitude in neo-Kantian methodology and value-philosophy (Paul Natorp, H. Rickert, Wilhelm Windelband) at the expense of its root in the primordial realm of the pretheoretical (sections 2-12, i.e., the first part of the course); c) the overcoming of the primacy of the theoretical attitude with the help of