Martin Heidegger The Basic Problems of Phenomenology Translated Albert Hofstadter

Translators Intoduction

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Introduction Exposition and general division Of the theme Paragraph One 7/30/2008 3:41:00 AM
1. The text is drawn from a course that Heidegger taught so it references are to the structures, Grammar, norms and mores of a taught course. The teacher who conveys his words in the format of a lecture to those who listen, and take notes. The text is presented is the absence of the students, though one of the students has contributed to the process.
1.1. This course sets out for itself the task of posing the basic problems of phenomenology, elaborating them, and proceeding to some extant towards their solution. Phenomenology must develop its concept out of what it takes as its theme and how it investigates its object. Our considerations are aimed at the inherent and inner systematic relationships of the basic problems. The goal is to achieve a fundamental illumination of these problems.

2. This course and the task.

2.1. The course we set, we take; as though a preset defined route as opposed to the destination. The route of the course is in fact the course, for the aim of course lies in its ending. Should the course be successfully planned, and or that plan is successfully executed then the aim of the course will be discovered at its end. 2.2. The course of the river as opposed to its telos?

2.3. Is each stage of the river its telos, or is it the end of the river only that is its telos? Each stage of the river, is that in fact any point that we pick on the way to its telos? Does the task of the course lie in every moment of the course, or can the task only be seen in the course as a whole?

3. The basic, the problems and phenomenology.

4. At the end of the course, at the end of the introduction perhaps, we will want to know what Heidegger means by basic, by problems and perhaps by phenomenology. Somehow we will see that the notion of phenomenology might lie in its problems, and at that its basic problems. These problems might not indicate that the problems that phenomenology faces, or causes, but the problems that its is meant to be an answer to; but somehow all three could be valid.

5. The aim or telos of phenomenology is to provide a resolution for its problems.

5.1. Thus, we can say that Heidegger sees phenomenology as an answer to a certain set of problems of basic problems. [do these basic problems lead to a number of secondary or multiple layers of problems that also need to be examined. 5.2. Can we say that once these basic problems have been resolved, assuming that it is possible to resolve them, that what we will have is the closure of phenomenology. This response is closer to that offered by Jacques Derrida in the limits of philosophy. 6. Phenomenology must develop its concept out of what it takes as its theme and how it investigates its object. 6.1. Our understanding of phenomenology develops our of its subject and the way that it carries out its investigative function. This fits in with the idea that it function is related to its mission, which is the resolution of its basic problems. Once these problems are resolved then Phenomenology will have reached the end of its existenz.

7. Our considerations are aimed at the inherent and inner systematic relationships of the basic problems. The goal is to achieve a fundamental illumination of these problems. 7.1. Each of the problems have interior content. 7.2. The problems exist within systems of connective-ness between each other. 7.3. The goal, that arises from our considerations are to achieve a fundamental illumination of these problems. What is the connection between our aims, the goal, or the course of Phenomenology. [This is the important consideration that will be answered at some time.]

Paragraph Two.

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1. In negative terms this means that our purpose is not to acquire historical knowledge about the circumstances of the modern movement in philosophy called phenomenology. We shall be dealing not with phenomenology itself deals with. And, again, we do not wish merely to take note of it so to be able to report then that phenomenology deals with this or that subject; instead, the course deals with the subject itself, and you yourself are supposed to deal with it, or learn how to do so, as the course proceeds. The point is not to gain some knowledge about philosophy but to be able to philosophize. A introduction to the basic problems could lead to that end. 1.1. negative terms 1.1.1. A negative theology perhaps, in the way that I talk about it. 1.2. To acquire historical knowledge 1.2.1.

Paragraph three

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1. And these basic problems themselves? Are we to take it on trust that the ones we discuss do in fact constitute the inventory of the basic problems? How shall we arrive at these basic problems? Not directly but by the round-about way of a discussion of certain individual problems. From these we shall sift out the basic problems and determine their systematic interconnection. Such is an understanding of the basic problems should yield insight into the degree to which philosophy as a science is necessarily demanded by them. The course accordingly divides into three parts. At the outset we may outline them as follows.