Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological: Interpreting Husserl through Dilthey

“No one knows the Heidegger-Dilthey connection better than Robert Scharff, and in this revolutionary new work he pushes the reset button on the origins of Being and Time. Through a meticulous reading of the earliest courses Scharff reveals how Heidegger’s grappling with Dilthey turned him into a phenomenologist of life and eventually of Dasein, in contrast to the transcendental consciousness of Husserl. Written with clarity and verve, this book leaves the “Seinology” of later commentaries in the dust and restores to Heidegger’s work the existential vitality that is its birthright.”

Welcome everyone to this meetup series presented by Scott and Philip.

Every second Friday we will get together to talk about this book:

• Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological: Interpreting Husserl through Dilthey, 1916-1925 (2019) by Robert C. Scharff — see link for further info about the book

Scroll to the bottom for the reading schedule and pdf 👇👇👇👇👇

The format will be Philip's usual "accelerated live read" format. What this means is that each participant will be expected to read roughly 10-15 pages before each session. Each participant will have the option of picking a few paragraphs they especially want to focus on. We will then do a live read on the paragraphs that the participants found most interesting when they did the assigned reading.

People who have not done the reading are welcome to attend this meetup. However if you want to TALK during the meetup it is essential that you do the reading. We mean it! It is essential that the direction of the conversation be influenced only by people who have actually done the reading. You may think you are so brilliant and wonderful that you can come up with great points even if you do not do the reading. You probably are brilliant and wonderful — no argument there. But you still have to do the reading if you want to talk in this meetup. REALLY.

Please note that this is a "raise hands" meetup and has a highly structured format, not an anarchy-based one. This is partly for philosophical reasons: We want to discourage a simple-minded rapid fire "gotcha!" approach to philosophy. But our highly structured format is also for disability related reasons that Philip can explain if required.

I expect that some of the participants in this meetup will also have been in the Sunday meetup when Jen, Scott and Philip presented this short book:

• Philosophy of Life: German Lebensphilosophie 1870-1920 by Frederick C. Beiser

If you have not read this book you might find it helpful to do so. But it is not required that you do so to be a part of this meetup on the Scharff book.

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THE READING SCHEDULE (pdf here)

• Sept 5th, Please read the Preface (up to the end of Roman numeral page xxvii)
• Sept 19th, Please read up to page 19
• Oct 3rd, Please read up to page 36
• After that, the readings will be posted...

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Here is the description for the back cover of the Scharff book:

In this first book-length study of the topic, Robert C. Scharff offers a detailed analysis of the young Heidegger's interpretation of Dilthey's hermeneutics of historical life and Husserl's transcendental phenomenology. He argues that it is Heidegger's prior reading of Dilthey that grounds his critical appropriation of Husserl's phenomenology. He shows that in Heidegger's early lecture courses, a "possible" phenomenology is presented as a genuine alternative with the modern philosophies of consciousness to which Husserl's "actual" phenomenology is still too closely tied. All of these philosophies tend to overestimate the degree to which we can achieve intellectual independence from our surroundings and inheritance. In response, Heidegger explains why becoming phenomenological is always a possibility; but being a phenomenologist is not.

Scharff concludes that this discussion of the young Heidegger, Husserl, and Dilthey leads to the question of our own current need for a phenomenological philosophy — that is, for a philosophy that avoids technique-happiness, that at least sometimes thinks with a self-awareness that takes no theoretical distance from life, and that speaks in a language that is "not yet" selectively representational.

Welcome! And enjoy!