Heidegger: Thinking the Unthinkable
German philosopher Martin Heidegger addressed the central question of human existence full on, by examining how human self-awareness depends on concepts of time and death. His preoccupation with ontology – the form of metaphysical inquiry concerned with the study of existence itself – dominated his work. The central idea of his complex Sein und Zeit (Being and Time) (1927) could be summed up in the phrase ‘being is’.
Man had to ask himself ‘what is it to be?’ and only by doing this, and standing back from absorption into objects and other distractions, could he actually exist. For Heidegger, the constant fear of death and the anxieties of life helped man to ask this central question – the mystery of life was intimately linked to the individual’s confrontation and consideration of the temporary nature of their own existence.
Heidegger also felt that art, like language, was important evidence of existence, something which was a real existence rather than a mere recreation of reality. He opposed technology, which he believed caused alienation, and advocated a return to an agrarian economy in which the individual had a greater role. For many Heidegger’s reputation is tainted by his association with Nazism in 1930’s Germany; he actively supported Adolf Hitler during the dictator’s first years in power and after World War II he was banned by the Allies from teaching and publishing for five years.
Despite this, his work has been widely influential, especially on the thought of twentieth century philosophical giants such as Sartre, Lacan and Derrida. (Excerpt from bbc.co.uk)
Watch the full documentary now
February 7th, 2009 at 23:56
thanks for digging out these great docos. A shame google is shutting down their upload service in a few months. Will have to find another reliable service.
cheers.
July 29th, 2009 at 08:17
Always enjoy pondering the mysteries of the universe…
September 19th, 2009 at 08:58
It’s a shame that there isn’t really anything about his ideas, in fact there is basically only one paragraph about it about 15 minutes in, the rest is just “nazi this, nazi that, never forgive, total nazi, bad man don’t even bother looking into what he wrote, nazi nazi nazi”
Sure it’s a fairly important part of who he was, and should be mentioned, but not for 47 of the 49 minutes.
October 8th, 2009 at 07:29
I think the thing about all these movies is that it is tough to make a film documentary about a particular philosopher’s philosophy and make it interesting. What you don’t often get with books by these philosophers are their backgrounds, which can often be almost as important as what they write. Watch the movie, but if you want to learn about the philosophy itself, read some books.
November 2nd, 2009 at 00:27
As Rorty well puts it there are plenty of cases of bad men writing great books. The only real question for me is: Is Heidegger’s philosophy in any way Fascist? The documentary mentions some things in relation to this question but it’s rather vague. I studied Heidegger quite a while ago and was hoping for more insight into his philosophy. However this docu was a little light in that respect.
November 15th, 2009 at 22:20
I think the movie does what it purports to do. Why is he both admired and reviled? What sort of man was he? How did he become aligned with the Nazi movement and to what extent should his Nazi involvement detract from his status of a thinker? You have to know who the man was if you want to understand what he wrote and its purpose. Yes, it may not be the best illustration of the man, but it is said within the time allotted; better to read about him, of course. Good to hear other sides, but why let others do the work for you?