Heidegger at 100, in America

The year 1989 marked the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Martin Heidegger. What has happened to his thought in America? This essay offers a perspective on what I take to be the main trends and some representative works in Heidegger studies on the American side of the Atlantic (with perforce some simplifications both within and among the trends I mention). Heidegger does keep attracting more attention worldwide, at least as measured by the number of articles or books prominently mentioning him. A computer search of the Philosopher's Index found 1,924 mentions of Heidegger in either the title or the abstract of items indexed since the 1940 starting date of the index. Mentions of Heidegger have increased in each five-year period since World War II, and out of all the indexed items mentioning Heidegger, 27% (527 items) have been published in the last five years.To commemorate the centennial, a number of major conferences were held. At Loyola University in Chicago speakers from many nations concentrated on Heidegger's central ideas, often using contemporary French thought to help explicate Heidegger. At Berkeley a conference discussed applying Heidegger. Psychologists and social workers were among the intended audience, as well as analytic philosophers. At Yale Heidegger's politics and his Nazi connections were the focus. At Memphis State University, many ways of interpreting Heidegger were present, and conversation between them was at times difficult. All claim to be appropriating Heidegger's unique contribution. But there are disagreements as to what that contribution might be. The diverse conferences are emblematic of the divided state of Heidegger studies today. Heidegger has become common intellectual property. Thinkers approach him with different agendas; they find his thought useful for purposes he might not have approved of, and they do not necessarily accept his overall program

Epistemology · History · Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy · Philosophy