Heidegger in 90 Minutes

Rating:
Summary: A Pathetic Paradox
Review: As indicated by the title, this is a very quick overview of Heiddeger. As such it is interesting and well written. However, I was more interested in the philosophy than the man, and so was a bit disappointed in the relatively little attention given to Heiddeger's ideas, as opposed to his life. Some terms are not explained clearly for a beginner. An example: the author assumes that the meaning and origin of the term "phenomenology" is transparent and self-evident. The last portion of the book is very negative about the man, but does not show why this would negate the value of the philosopher's ideas. (I don't like Picasso much as an individual, but am entranced by his paintings....) In spite of my reservations, I went from almost no knowledge of Heidegger to a place where I'm ready to learn more; I'm glad I read it (and it did take just about ninety minutes to do so).

Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS SILLY BOOK!
Review: If you must have a comicbook introduction to Heidegger, then buy Heidegger for Beginners, which is not terrible. But you would be much better served by picking up a secondary text published by a good university press. Better yet, why not bite the bullet and read Heidegger himself? (Start with Pathmarks, which is excellent, or Basic Writings, which is still very good.) Stay away from cheap nonsense like "Heidegger in 90 minutes" (this is absurd, as the other reviewers say!) and Heidegger's Confusions, which will only confuse you.

Rating:
Summary: The Emperor Has No Clothes
Review: It would be easy to look down on any book that offers to inform someone about Heidegger in "90 Minutes," yet Paul Strathern's book provides some good perspective on a philosopher hailed by some as the greatest of the twentieth century. As a former philosophy student who spent a semester on Heidegger's supposed masterpiece Being and Time (Sein und Zeit), I do not share that assessment of Heidegger. Strathern rightly raises the fundamental question whether the jargon or verbiage of Heidegger is meaningful at all (p. 33). My own personal conclusion matches that of the psychologist Jung who referred to Heidegger as the "master of complicated banalities" (p. 75). Only in a nihilistic world that has lost all faith in logical and clear thinking as a way to the truth can the absurd verbiage of Heidegger be hailed as a philosophical advance.

Strathern also rightly raises the active and eager Nazism of Heidegger in the thirties that was indeed related to his philosophical ideas (p.62), although Strathern chivalrously tries to salvage the pure core of Heidegger's ideas from Nazi affinity. Finally, Strathern does not shrink back from recounting the failure of integrity and character seen in Heidegger's turning his back on his Jewish philosophical mentor Husserl during the Nazi era (p. 60) and from recounting the deception involved in Heidegger's lengthy adulterous relation with his much younger student Hannah Arendt (pp. 35-40).

Rating:
Summary: A nice attempt and an OK introduction to a complex subject
Review: The author has attempted to write a short biography and a short introduction to one of the last century's most significant (and difficult) philosophers. I have a Master's in Philosophy and a Doctorate in another unrelated field, and read parts of Heidegger's Being and Time (Sein und Zeit) during a course in Sein und Zeit while in grad school.

Let me begin by saying any attempt to condense Heidegger's life and thought into 90 minutes is a cross between desperation and ridiculousness (someone like Woody Allen might say that St Peter would use it as a test to see who got into Philosopher's Heaven). I remember that trying to read three pages (sometimes three sentences) of Being and Time in 90 minutes was like speed-reading, and I still consider reading any part of Sein und Zeit to be a superb exercise for developing mid-term memory and cognition. To paraphrase Boswell, the miracle about "Heidegger in 90 Minutes" is not that it's done well, but that someone tried to do it at all.

Well, all that aside, I suppose this is as good an attempt as any, but don't get your expectations up. Strathern is heavy on the dark side of Heidegger's life (his Naziism, his ethical derelictions, his occasional philosophical and personal ridiculousness) but light on the good side of Heidegger (I don't think you will be able to impress a knowledgeable person with your knowledge of Heidegger by reading this book, if the subject should come up in a bar). He gives a reasonably good critique of Heidegger's thought and he focuses reasonably well on Heidegger's emphasis on Being as philosophy's major raison d'etre.

In summary, I think it's well worth the 90 minutes as an introduction, but don't plan on using it to write any essays for your philosophy class. Check out the internet, any good summary book of German philosophy, and the recent autobiography by R. Safranski. Make sure your pencils are sharp and your erasers plentiful. Bring a sense of humor and don't drive while listening to the audiotape (you won't fall asleep, but you won't pay attention to your driving, either).

Rating:
Summary: A Pathetic Paradox
Review: The very notion that one could get something called "Heidegger" in 90 minutes is profoundly ridiculous. As any one who has studied Heidegger for (apparently) more than 90 minutes can tell you, Heidegger's thought is extraordinarily complex, and often impenetrable even to the seasoned student of philosophy. More to the point, Heidegger himself is famous for railing against the superficial "chatter" of the industry of letters; yet few philosophers (aside from Nietzsche perhaps) have been subjected to as much useless chatter as has been Heidegger.

My advice - dispense with the "industry" of philosophy altogether, and especially its pathetic popularized forms. If you're not up to trying to read Heidegger (or any philosopher, dead or alive) himself, then just stay out of philosophy altogether.