Concept of Time

I read this book for a graduate seminar on philosophy. In one of the most influential philosophical books of the twentieth century, Martin Heidegger's "The Concept of Time," he deconstructs phenomenology. Heidegger's kind of phenomenology has to do with the idea of phenomenon, which means something that appears and shows itself. His criticism of traditional philosophy is that it gets started with categories, concepts, and notions, departing from the way human comprehension of this world first shows itself. This is Aristotelian and Aristotle is an enormous influence on Heidegger. Another way to understand Heidegger is a wonderful analysis of the idea that the word "being" has become a noun in philosophy, like first things of beings, or things that are. Yet Heidegger says in the Greek language and other western languages this idea of "being" grammatically in language is derived from a verb, the primary verb "to be." Moreover, as a verb it is tensed which means it has to do with time. All verbs are tensed, even Aristotle said, "That is the difference between a verb and a noun." The difference between a verb and a noun, a verb is something that has to do with time, not just action, but time. That is why all verbs are tensed as future, and past. The very fact that time is another perfect indication of negativity, because time is ever changing, ever moving, and when we are in the present, the past is time of negativity it is no longer. When we are in the present, the future is kind of negative it is not yet. Yet we understand these negatives as meaningful, that is why we can get upset about the past that it is not happening anymore, and why we can become excited about the future even though it hasn't happened yet, they have meaning to us. I recommend this work for anyone interested in philosophy, epistemology, and ontology.

The `Concept Of Time' is a lecture Heidegger delivered to the Marburg Theological Society in July of 1924. Heidegger introduces his `ontological' way of asking the question `what is time?' Heidegger's way of asking and answering the question of time is not physical `clock-time', theological or cognitive. Rather, time is rendered intelligible through existence - Dasein. Heidegger distinguishes between authentic time as running back from the future and the inauthentic spatialization of time as a now point `t' next to spatial coordinates `x,y,z'.Many readers are highly intimidated by Heidegger's masterwork `Being and Time' because of its lenghth, breadth of thought and fusion of language. `The Concept of Time' is a very short and clear piece and makes an excellent primer for `Being and Time' and his thought in general. Highly recommended for the beginner and any serious scholar who ignored it in the past.