Heidegger in Question: The Art of Existing (Philosophy and Literary Theory)

Heidegger in Question is a collection of Robert Bernasconi's most important papers on Heidegger since the publication of his book The Question of Language in Heidegger's History of Being (Humanities Press, 1985). Drawing often on new materials only recently made available, Bernasconi explores in the context of Heidegger's thought a number of questions of far-reaching concern: What is the role of literary examples within philosophy? Is art dead? What is the relation of art to nature? Is there a place for the idea of a "people" in art and literary theory, and in philosophy? Is the history of philosophy to be written as a narrative? What is the status of ethics within philosophy? What place does philosophy give to praxis? What is the place today of the belief in the nobility of the philosophical life? What is the relation of politics to thought?Reflecting a dominant concern of recent Heidegger scholarship, the focal point of a number of the essays is the relation of Heidegger's own politics to his thought. In addition to this examination of what appears to compromise Heidegger's philosophy, Bernasconi also explores its relation to the further possibilities which that thought has opened in the writings of Arendt, Gadamer, Levinas, and Derrida. Heidegger in Question poses questions to a thinking that continues to challenge its readership, even when it seems most questionable.