Dasein

Abstract

The aim of this commentary is to make “Being and Time” accessible in terms of its fundamental conceptual structure and its extraordinary wealth of ideas, and to reveal the book’s guiding themes in their systematic interconnection. To this end, references to both Kant’s transcendental philosophy and Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology are indispensable. An interpretative approach that does justice to the systematic significance of such a reference to transcendental philosophy remains a desideratum of research, despite the now almost unmanageable volume of secondary literature. The present interpretation analyses Heidegger’s magnum opus within the framework of a close reading of the text. The occasionally ‘jargon-like’ nature of his language cannot be avoided throughout; however, the commentary attempts to reduce it as far as possible. At the same time, the exposition goes beyond the letter of the text where the argumentation requires further explanation or interpretative clarification. The commentary is framed by a contextualising introduction and a concluding section which recapitulates the train of thought in “Being and Time” once again in concise form, addresses Heidegger’s transcendentalism, and summarises the analysis of time central to the work. A final section is devoted to the connection between “Being and Time” and Heidegger’s ‘error’.