A Guide to Heidegger’s Being and Time

An indispensable guide to the major work of one of the twentieth century’s most influential thinkers.

This is the most comprehensive commentary on both Divisions of Heidegger’s Being and Time, making it the essential guide for newcomers and specialists alike. Beginning with a non-technical exposition of the question Heidegger poses–“What does it mean to be?”–and keeping that question in view, it gradually increases the closeness of focus on the text. Citing Joan Stambaugh’s translation, the author explains the key notions of the original with the help of concrete illustrations and reference to certain of the most relevant works Heidegger composed both before and after the publication of Being and Time.

“Originally published in the early sixties as one of the first English-language commentaries on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Magda King’s masterful Guide has now been vastly expanded to cover the whole of Being and Time, its renderings of Heidegger’s German terms revised to correspond to Joan Stambaugh’s new translation of Being and Time, and its discussions of Heidegger’s later texts supplemented with references to his recently published earliest texts before Being and Time . In this expanded and revised edition prepared by John Llewelyn, King’s Guide is now the best companion volume to use with Stambaugh’s new translation of Being and Time. ” — John van Buren, author of The Young Rumor of the Hidden King

“Of all the studies of Being and Time with which I am familiar, Magda King’s is the most direct, the simplest, and the clearest. Remarkably, the simplicity and clarity are achieved without loss of detail or accuracy and without dodging difficult interpretive problems. This makes her book an extraordinarily effective guide to a complex work and thus a virtually perfect companion text for use with Being and Time.” — Joseph P. Fell, J. H. Harris Professor Emeritus, Bucknell University