Description
A portrait of Martin Heidegger as a man and a philosopher  In this biography of Martin Heidegger (1889â1976), now available in English, historian Guillaume Payen synthesizes the connections between the German philosopherâs life and work. Critically, but without polemics, he creates a portrait of Heidegger in his time, using all available sourcesâlectures, letters, and the notorious âblack notebooks.â  Payen chronicles Heideggerâs âchanging destiniesâ: after the First World War, an uncompromising Catholicism gave way to a vigorous striving for a philosophical revolutionâfertile ground for National Socialism. The book reflects a life of light and shadow. Heidegger was a great philosopher and teacher who cultivated friendships and love affairs with Jews but also was an anti-Semitic nationalist who lamented the âJudaization of German intellectual life.â