Volume 35 of Heidegger's Complete Works comprises a lecture course given at the University of Freiburg in 1932, five years after the publication of Being and Time. During this period, Heidegger was at the height of his creative powers, which are on full display in this clear and imaginative text. In it, Heidegger leads his students in a close reading of two of the earliest philosophical source documents, fragments by Greek thinkers Anaximander and Parmenides. Heidegger develops their common theme of Being and non-being and shows that the question of Being is indeed the origin of Western philosophy. His engagement with these Greek texts is as much of a return to beginnings as it is a potential reawakening of philosophical wonder and inquiry in the present.

Richard Rojcewicz is Scholar-in-Residence in the Philosophy Department at Duquesne University. He has translated (with Daniela Vallega-Neu) Heidegger's Contributions to Philosophy: Of the Event (IUP, 2012) and The Event (IUP, 2012).

ContentsTranslator's Introduction

The beginning of Western philosophy Interpretation of Anaximander and Parmenides Part One The dictum of Anaximander of Miletus, 6th-5th Century Introduction1. The mission and the dictum Chapter I The first phase of the interpretation A. The first section of the statement2. The theme of the dictum: beings as a whole B. The second section of the statement3. Beings in the relation of compliance and noncompliance C. The third section of the statement4. Being and time

Chapter II The second phase of the interpretation5. The unitary content of the pronouncement on the basis of its central core

Chapter III The other dictum6. The sovereign source of beings as the empowering power of appearance Part Two Interposed considerations7. Four objections to the interpretation8. The negative relation to the beginning9. Meditation on the "current situation"10. The grounding utterance of Being11. The actual asking of the question of Being12. Review of the linguistic usage13. The basic question of existence14. Commentary on our concept of existence15. The full rendering of the understanding of Being16. The liberation toward freedom17. Transition to Parmenides: the first explicit and coherent unfolding of the question of Being

Part Three The "didactic poem" of Parmenides of Elea 6th-5th Century18. Introduction19. Interpretation of fragment 1. Preparation for the question of Being20. Interpretation of fragments 4 and 521. Interpretation of fragments 6 and 722. Interpretation of fragment 823. The fragments 9, 12, 13, 10, 11, 14, 16, 19 (in the order of their interpretation) Conclusion24. The inceptual question of Being; the law of philosophy

Appendix

Drafts and plans for the lecture courseEditor's afterword

German-English GlossaryEnglish-German Glossary