heidegger and classical thought

Martin Heidegger’s work is a most original and audacious engagement with the thinkers of Greek antiquity, and yet he remains an absent figure in much, especially English-speaking, Classical scholarship.  It is only relatively recently that it has become so clear how central ancient texts were to the development of Heidegger’s thought. 

 

Some of the most important texts in this trajectory have been among the last to be published in Heidegger’s Collected Works (Gesamtausgabe), and even some earlier ones have only recently reached Anglophone audiences. If it has long been well-known how closely Heidegger read Aristotle and Plato, the breadth of Heidegger’s astonishing readings of Parmenides, Heraclitus and Anaximander have only latterly become fully available, with some still to be translated.

 

This research project aims to help make Heidegger’s immense and profound contribution to Classical thought more widely accessible.   Although we often work with the original German and Greek texts that are central to this contribution, we focus on ensuring that even those without fluency in these languages can participate fully.  The working language of these projects is English.

 

By bringing both philosophers and classicists into dialogue, we aim to open the way for fruitful exchange between contemporary thinkers interested in Heidegger and classical discourse.