Heidegger and Authenticity: From Resoluteness to Releasement

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Heidegger's thinking in the decades following the publication of Being and Time is often deemed irreconcilable with that work. Critics contrast the notion of "resoluteness" in Being and Time with Heidegger's post-war account of "releasement" in an attempt to establish a discrepancy between the allegedly voluntarist humanism of his early work and the supposedly anti-humanist' thinking of his later work. By contrast, Mahon O'Brien argues for the structural and thematic coherence of Heidegger's movement from authenticity to the search for an authentic free relation to the world - as captured by the term "releasement". By demonstrating the structural and thematic unity of Heidegger's thought in its entirety, O'Brien paves the way for a more measured and philosophically grounded understanding of the issues at stake in the Heidegger controversy.

Reviews

Mahon O'Brien's Heidegger and Authenticity: From Resoluteness to Releasement represents an important contribution to Heidegger studies. By treating the question of authenticity as a central theme throughout Heidegger's work, O'Brien offers a compelling interpretation of Heidegger's thought as a continuous whole. O'Brien's careful readings will challenge the view that there is a radical break in Heidegger's development between the supposed metaphysical voluntarism lingering in early writings such as Being and Time and the putative new departure into releasement in the later period. Gregory Fried, Suffolk University, Boston, USA -- Gregory Fried
"An original look at one of the most discussed concepts of Heideggers thought - and an interesting interpretation of the consistency of this thought." -- Krzysztof Michalski
Mahon O'Brien's volume mounts a stirring defense of the fundamental continuity of Heidegger's thinking, centered in the concept of authenticity. Without discounting the evolving nature of Heidegger's thinking or ignoring l'affaire Heidegger, O'Brien demonstrates the constancy of Heidegger's summons to human beings to move beyond the constraints of anthropocentric metaphysics and relate authentically to things, letting them be. Daniel O. Dahlstrom, Chair, Professor of Philosophy, Boston University, USA -- Daniel O. Dahlstrom

Author Bio

Mahon O'Brien is Postdoctoral Fellow atUniversity College Dublin, Ireland, and has taught Philosophy at Suffolk University, Boston, USA, and Boston University, USA.