Essays discuss the themes of worldliness, affectedness, understanding, and the care-structure found in Heidegger's work on the nature of existence.

In her excellent Heidegger, Language, and World-Disclosure Cristina Lafont urges a fresh way of looking at the issue: she argues that cognition and assertion are dependent not upon precognitive, engaged practice, but rather upon language as a holistic phenomenon. Being-in-the-world is at its core the disclosure of a symbolically mediated world in terms of which anything that we can experience, judge, or talk about is given its place and parameters. Entities and states of affairs are accessible to us in terms (...) of meaning, and meaning is itself made accessible to us through understanding. Understanding is, however, always essentially “discursive,” or symbolically mediated, so that our access to the world around us, and anything that might show up within that world, is structured by language. The difference between Lafont’s approach and its practice-oriented rival is especially clear vis-à-vis the “fore-structure of interpretation.” According to Lafont, cognition is grounded in what Heidegger calls “forehaving,” because forehaving is the disclosure of the whole of linguistic meaning available to the cognizer. According to a practice-oriented approach, by “forehaving” Heidegger means the holistic set of precognitive practices in which whatever we are currently doing is domiciled. (shrink)

To address the question posed in the title, I focus on Heidegger's conception of linguistic communication developed in the sections on Rede and Gerede of Being and Time. On the basis of a detailed analysis of these sections I argue that Heidegger was a social externalist but semantic internalist. To make this claim, however, I first need to clarify some key points that have led critics to assume Heidegger's commitment to social externalism automatically commits him to semantic externalism regarding concept (...) use. I begin by explaining the independence of those positions, arguing that social externalism answers the question of whose concepts in a linguistic community are properly individuated, whereas semantic externalism makes a claim about what it takes for concepts to be properly individuated. Once these issues are distinguished, it is possible to see that Heidegger's intersubjectivist conception of language commits him to social externalism, while his conception of the ontological difference commits him to semantic internalism. (shrink)

This book is a major contribution to the understanding of Heidegger and a rare attempt to bridge the schism between traditions of analytic and Continental philosophy. Cristina Lafont applies the core methodology of analytic philosophy, language analysis, to Heidegger's work providing both a clearer exegesis and a powerful critique of his approach to the subject of language. In Part One, she explores the Heideggerean conception of language in depth. In Part Two, she draws on recent work from theorists of direct (...) reference (Putnam, Donnellan and Kripke inter alia) to reveal the limitations of Heidegger's views and to show how language shapes our understanding of the world without making learning impossible. The book first appeared in German but has been substantially revised for the English edition. (shrink)

This collection of essays by one of the foremost Kant scholars of our time is a welcome and timely addition to the literature. Henrich is a very prolific scholar, and the lack of English translations of most of his works may account in some measure for the fact that there has been surprisingly little sustained engagement with them by Anglo-American scholars, especially those working on Kant’s ethics. It is to be hoped that this volume will help provoke such an engagement.

"A magisterial accomplishment that will be the standard in this field for years to come."--John D. Caputo, Villanova University "Outstanding, entirely original, absolutely groundbreaking.... It is quite simply the best account to date--and the best we can expect for decades in the future--of the philosophical development of Heidegger's early thought."--Thomas Sheehan, Loyola University "A magisterial accomplishment that will be the standard in this field for years to come."--John D. Caputo, Villanova University.