Heidegger and Aristotle: The Twofoldness of Being

by Walter A. Brogan

Overview

Walter A. Brogan's long-awaited book exploring Heidegger's phenomenological reading of Aristotle's philosophy places particular emphasis on the Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, and Rhetoric. Controversial and challenging, Heidegger and Aristotle claims that it is Heidegger's sustained thematic focus and insight that governs his overall reading of Aristotle, namely, that Aristotle, while attempting to remain faithful to the Parmenidean dictum regarding the oneness and unity of being, nevertheless thinks of being as twofold. Brogan offers a careful and detailed analysis of several of the most important of Heidegger's treatises on Aristotle, including his assertion that Aristotle's twofoldness of being has been ignored or misread in the traditional substance-oriented readings of Aristotle. This groundbreaking study contributes immensely to the scholarship of a growing community of ancient Greek scholars engaged in phenomenological approaches to the reading and understanding of Aristotle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791483015
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Series:	SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	226
File size:	369 KB

About the Author

Walter A. Brogan is Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University. He is the coeditor (with James Risser) of American Continental Philosophy: A Reader and the cotranslator (with Peter Warnek) of Martin Heidegger's Aristotle's Metaphysics (theta) 1–3: On the Essence and Actuality of Force.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface

1. Martin Heidegger's Relationship to Aristotle

Heidegger's Phenomenological Reading of Aristotle
What It Means to Read Aristotle as a Phenomenologist
The Lost Manuscript: An Introduction to Heidegger's Interpretation of Aristotle

2. The Doubling of Phusis: Aristotle's View of Nature

The Meaning of Phusis
Heidegger's Ontological Interpretation of Movement in Aristotle's Philosophy
The Phenomenology of Seeing and the Recognition of Movement as the Being of Beings
The Meaning of Cause in Natural Beings: Heidegger's Rejection of Agent Causality
Ontological Movement and the Constancy of Beings
Phusis as the Granting of Place: Change and the Place of Beings
The Complex Relationship of Phusis and Techné
The Horizon for Understanding Phusis: The Meaning of Ousia

3. The Destructuring of the Tradition

Aristotle's Confrontation with Antiphon

Elemental Being (Stoicheia): Aristotle's Conception of Ontological Difference
The Meaning of Eternal (Aidion) and Its Relation to Limit (Peras)
The Necessity Belonging to Beings (Anangké) and the Possibility of Violence
The Law of Non-Contradiction
The Difference Between Being and Beings
The Method of Aristotle's Thought

The Path of Aristotle's Thought: The Twofoldness of Phusis

Aristotle's Hylomorphic Theory
The Way of Logos in the Discovery of Phusis
Genesis and Sterésis: The Negation at the Heart of Being

4. The Force of Being

Aristotle's Resolution of the Aporia of Early Greek Philosophy
The Rejection of the Categorial Sense of Being as the Framework for Understanding of Being as Force
The Non-Categorial Meaning of Logos in Connection with Being as Dunamis: Force in Relationship to Production
Aristotle's Confrontation with the Megarians: The Way of Being-Present of Force
The Connection Between Force and Perception: The Capability of Disclosing Beings as Such

5. Heidegger and Aristotle: An Ontology of Human Dasein

Dasein and the Question of Practical Life
Sein und Zeit and the Ethics of Aristotle
Plato's Dialectical Philosophy and Aristotle's Recovery of Nous: The Problem of Rhetoric and the Limits of Logos

The Ontological Status of Dialectic
Plato's Negative Account of Rhetoric in the Gorgias
Plato's Positive Account of Rhetoric in the Phaedrus

The Sophist Course: Aristotle's Recovery of Truth after Plato
The 1925-1926 Logik Course: Aristotle's Twofold Sense of Truth

Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

The substantive and rigorous readings offered by Brogan-conveyed in exemplary philosophical prose, lucid and precise-clarify many murky aspects and unveil some unexpected and truly radical positions in the thinking of the early Heidegger's Aristotle. Indeed, Brogan's interpretation is careful, rich, and provocative.— Continental Philosophy Review

"This study provides a masterful exegesis of central texts in which Heidegger presents his reading of Aristotle's thought ... Anyone seeking a thoughtful elaboration of Heidegger's positive reading of Aristotle's philosophy need look no further."— Ancient Philosophy

"...Brogan provides an especially clear exposition to parts of Heidegger's Aristotle interpretation. Any serious student of Heidegger should give this book careful scrutiny for the way in which it gives fresh meaning to core issues in Heidegger's understanding of phusis and techne, the ontological difference, Heidegger's understanding of the Greeks generally, and especially how Aristotle's ontology wrestles with the problems inherited from his predecessors."— Review of Metaphysics

"This is, by far, the most extensive study of the 'dialogue' between Heidegger and Aristotle, and one that will be consulted as the authoritative study on the topic. It takes giant steps to challenge the usual reading of Aristotle, and does so in a persuasive way, which partisans of the more traditional view will ignore only at their peril."— Drew A. Hyland, author of Questioning Platonism: Continental Interpretations of Plato"

From the Publisher