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The Other Platonist Beginning

Heidegger and Neoplatonism

by Emile Alexandrov (Author)
©2024 Monographs XXIV, 380 Pages

Summary

This book founds an other Platonist beginning by repositioning Plato and Neoplatonism in Heidegger’s history of metaphysics. This beginning begins with Plato and culminates in Heidegger. By revisiting Heidegger’s interpretation of Plato and retrieving Neoplatonist approaches to non-discursive thinking, the other beginning that has hitherto remained dormant within the history of thought is established. The author re-thinks Heidegger’s attribution of the collapse of truth (alētheia) to Plato by recovering the dialogues’ deep topography, myths and inspired expression. The re-interpretation of Plato is then linked to Neoplatonism, where significant parallels with Heidegger emerge. The book thoroughly and consistently explores the non-discursive thinking of Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus with Heidegger’s poetic thinking.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • List of Abbreviations
  • Abstract
  • Acknowledgements
  • Introduction
  • Part I Heidegger’s Two Beginnings
  • Chapter 1 Why Heidegger and His Two Beginnings?
  • Chapter 2 The Other Beginning: The Event
  • Chapter 3 Hölderlin as the Futural Poet of the Other Beginning
  • Part II Re-​thinking Heidegger’s Plato
  • Chapter 4 Re-​thinking Heidegger’s Plato
  • Chapter 5 The Unhypothetical First Principle
  • Part III Neoplatonism and the Other Beginning
  • Chapter 6 Heidegger’s Interpretation of Neoplatonism
  • Chapter 7 Plotinus’ Metaphysics
  • Chapter 8 Porphyry’s Cave, Theurgy and Proclus’ Poetry
  • Conclusion

Abbreviations

Heidegger

GA 2: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 2: Sein Und Zeit (1927). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1977./​Being and Time. Translated by Joan Stambaugh. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996.

GA 3: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 3: Kant und Das Problem Der Metaphysik (1910–​76). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1991./​Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics. 5th edn. Translated By Richard Taft. Bloomington, IN, 1997.

GA 4: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 4: Erläuterungen zu Hölderlins Dichtung (1936–​8). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1996./​Elucidations of Hölderlin’s Poetry. Translated by Keith Hoeller. Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 2000.

GA 5: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 5: Holzwege (1935–​46). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1977./​AF = Anaximander Fragment in Early Greek Thinking. Translated by David Farrell Krell and Frank A. Capuzzi. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 1984, and TOA = The Origin of the Work of Art in Off the Beaten Track. Translated and edited by Julian Young and Kenneth Haynes. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

GA 6.1: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 6.1: Nietzsche Erster Band (1910–​76). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1996./​Nietzsche Volume I: The Will to Power as Art & Nietzsche Volume II: The Eternal Recurrence of the Same. Translated by David Farrell Krell. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991 and Nietzsche Volume III: The Will to Power as Knowledge and as Metaphysics. Translated by Joan Stambaugh, David Farrell Krell and Frank A. Capuzzi. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.

GA 6.2: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 6.2: Nietzsche Zweiter Band (1910–​76). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1997./​Nietzsche Volume III: The Will to Power as Knowledge and as Metaphysics. Translated by Joan Stambaugh, David Farrell Krell and Frank A. Capuzzi. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991 and Nietzsche Volume IV: Nihilism. Translated Frank A. Capuzzi. Edited by David Farrell Krell. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.

GA 7: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 7: Vorträge und Aufsätze (1936–​53). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2000./​OM = Overcoming Metaphysics in The End of Philosophy. Translated by Joan Stambaugh. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003. LO = Logos (Heraclitus, Fragment B 50), MO = Moira (Parmenides VIII, 34–​41), and AL = Aletheia (Heraclitus Fragment B 16) in Early Greek Thinking. Translated by David Farrell Krell and Frank A. Capuzzi. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 1984, BDT = Building, Dwelling, Thinking, PMD = Poetically Man Dwells in Poetry, Language, Thought in Basic Writings. Edited by David Farrell Krell. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993.

GA 8: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 8: Was Heisst Denken? (1910–​76). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2002./​What Is Called Thinking? Translated by Fred D. Wieck and J. Glenn Gray. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1968.

GA 9: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 9: Wegmarken (1919–​61). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2006./​PDT = Plato’s Doctrine of Truth, WIM = What Is Metaphysics? OET = On the Essence of Truth, OEG = On the Essence of Ground, PAT = Phenomenology and Theology, NOT = The Problem of a Non-​objectifying Thinking and Speaking in Today’s Theology, OAP = On the Essence of Concept of φύσις in Aristotle’s Physics B, I in Pathmarks. Edited by William McNeill. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

GA 11: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 11: Identität und Differenz (1910–​76). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1976./​Identity and Difference. Translated by Joan Stambaugh. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1969.

GA 12: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 12: Unterwegs zur Sprache (1910–​76). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1985./​WO = Words in On the Way To Language. Translated by Peter D. Hertz. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1971. LA = Language in Poetry, Language, Thought. Translated by Albert Hofstadter. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1971. TWL = The Way to Language in On the Way to Language. Translated by Peter D. Hertz. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1982.

GA 13: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 13: Aus der Erfahrung des Denkens (1910–​76). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1983./​TP = The Thinker as Poet in Poetry, Language, Thought. Translated by Albert Hofstadter. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1971. WS = Why Do I Stay in the Provinces? in Martin Heidegger: Philosophical and Political Writings. Edited by Manfred Stassen. London, UK: Continuum, 2003, TWN = The Want of Holy Names in The Want of Holy Names. Translated by Bernhard Radloff. Man and World 18, 261–​7 (1985). <https://​doi.org/​10.1007/​BF0​1248​813>.

GA 14: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 14: Zur Sache des Denkens (1927–​68). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2007./​On Time and Being. Translated by Joan Stambaugh. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1972.

GA 15: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 15: Seminare (1910–​76). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1986./​HS = Martin Heidegger and Eugen Fink, Heraclitus Seminar 1966/​67. Translated by Charles H. Seibert. University, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 1979. FS = Heidegger, Martin. Four Seminars: Le Thor 1966, 1968, 1969, Zähringen 1973. Translated by Andrew Mitchell and François Raffoul. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2003.

GA 16: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 16: Reden und andere Zeugnisse eines Lebensweges (1910–​76). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2000./​OAG = Only a God Can Save Us: Der Spiegel’s Interview in Martin Heidegger: Philosophical and Political Writings. Translated by Maria P. Alter and John D. Caputo. Edited by Manfred Stassen. London, UK: Continuum, 2003.

GA 19: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 19: Platon: Sophistes (1924–​5). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1992./​Plato’s Sophist. Translated by Richard Rojcewicz and Andre Schuwer. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2003.

GA 22: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 22: Die Grundbegriffe der Antiken Philosophie (1919–​44). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1993./​Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy. Translated by Richard Rojcewicz. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008.

GA 24: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 24: Die Grundprobleme der Phänomenologie (1927). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1975./The Basic Problems of Phenomenology. Revised Edition. Translated by Albert Hofstadter. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1982.

GA 26: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 26: Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Logik im Ausgang von Leibniz. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1978./​The Metaphysical Foundations of Logic. Translated by Michael Heim. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1992.

GA 33: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 33: Aristoteles, Metaphysik Θ 1–​3 (1923–​44). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1981./​Aristotle’s Metaphysics Θ 1–​3: On the Essence and Actuality of Force. Translated by Walter Brogan and Peter Warnek. Bloomington, IN: Indian University Press, 1995.

GA 34: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 34: Vom Wesen der Wahrheit. Zu Platons Höhlengleichnis und Theätet (1931–​2). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1988./​The Essence of Truth on Plato’s Cave Allegory and Theaetetus. Translated by Ted Sadler. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013.

GA 35: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 35: Der Anfang der abendländischen Philosophie: Auslegung des Anaximander und Parmenides (1932). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2012./​The Beginning of Western Philosophy: Interpretation of Anaximander and Parmenides. Translated by Richard Rojcewicz. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2015.

GA 39: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 39: Hölderlins Hymnen “Germanien” und “Der Rhein” (1934–​5). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1999./​Hölderlin’s Hymns “Germania” and “The Rhine.” Translated by William McNeill, and Julia Ireland. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2014.

GA 40: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 40: Einführung in die Metaphysik (1935). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2012./​Introduction to Metaphysics. Translated by Gregory Fried and Richard Polt. 2nd edn. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.

GA 42: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 42: Schelling: Vom Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit (1809) (1919–​44). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1988./​Schelling’s Treatise on the Essence of Human Freedom. Translated by Joan Stambaugh. Ohio, IL: Ohio University Press, 1985.

GA 51: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 51: Grundbegriffe (1941). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1991./​Basic Concepts. Translated by Gary E. Aylesworth. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993.

GA 52: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 52: Hölderlins Hymne “Andenken” (1941–​2). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1992./​Holderlin’s Hymn “Remembrance.” Translated by William McNeill, and Julia Ireland. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2018.

GA 53: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 53: Hölderlins Hymne “Der Ister” (1942). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1992./​Hölderlin’s Hymn “The Ister.” Translated by William McNeill, and Julia Davis. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996.

GA 54: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 54: Parmenides (1942–​3). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1982./​Parmenides. Translated by André Schuwer and Richard Rojcewicz. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1992.

GA 55: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 55: Heraklit (1943, 1944). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1979./​Heraclitus: The Inception of Occidental Thinking Logic: Heraclitus’s Doctrine of the Logos. Translated by Julia Goesser Assaiante and S. Montgomery Ewegen. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012.

GA 60: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 60: Phänomenologie des religiösen Lebens (1918–​21). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1995./​The Phenomenology of Religious Life. Translated by Matthias Fritsch and Jennifer Anna Gosetti-​Ferencei. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2010.

GA 65: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 65: Beiträge zur Philosophie. Vom Ereignis (1936–​8). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1989./​Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event). Translated by Richard Rojcewicz and Daniela Vallega-​Neu. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2012.

GA 66: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 66: Besinnung (1939). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1997./​Mindfulness. Translated by Parvis Emad and Thomas Kalary. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006.

GA 67: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 67: Metaphysik und Nihilismus (1938–​9, 1946–​8). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1999./​Metaphysics and Nihilism. Translated by Arun Iyer Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2022.

GA 69: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 69: Die Geschichte des Seyns (1938–​40). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1998./​The History of Beyng. Translated by William McNeill and Jeffrey Powell. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2015.

GA 70: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 70: Über den Anfang (1941). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2005.

GA 71: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 71: Das Ereignis (1941–​2). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2009./​The Event. Translated by Richard Rojcewicz. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2013.

GA 73.1: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 73.1: Zum Ereignis-​Denken (1932–​1970s). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2013.

GA 73.2: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 73.2: Zum Ereignis-​Denken (1932–​1970s). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2013.

GA 75: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 75: Zu Hölderlin (1939–​70). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2000.

GA 77: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 77: Feldweg-​Gespräche (1944–​5). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1995./​Country Path Conversations. Translated by Bret Davis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.

GA 78: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 78: Der Spruch des Anaximander (1942). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2010.

GA 79: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 79: Bremer und Freiburger Vorträge (1949, 1957). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1994./​TT = The Thing in Bremen and Freiburg Lectures: Insight into That Which Is and Basic Principles of Thinking. Translated by Andrew J. Mitchell. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2012.

GA 81: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 81: Gedachtes (1910–​75). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2018/​Thought Poems: A translation of Heidegger’s Verse. Translated by Eoghan Walls. London, UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.

GA 82: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 82: Zu eigenen Veröffentlichungen (1936, 1964). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2018.

GA 83: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 83: Platon-​Aristoteles-​Augustinus (1928–​52). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2012.

GA 84.1: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 84.1: Seminare Kant-​Leibniz-​Schiller (1931–​6). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2013.

GA 86: Heidegger, Martin. Gesamtausgabe 86: Seminare Hegel-​Schelling (1927–​57). Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2011.

GA 94: Heidegger, Martin. Überlegungen II–​VI (Schwarze Hefte 1931–​1938). Edited by Peter Trawny, 2014./​Ponderings II–​VI: Black Notebooks 1931–​8. Translated by Richard Rojcewicz. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2016.

Gadamer

GW 1: Gadamer, Hans-​Georg. Gessammelte Werke Band 1: Hermeneutik I: Wahrheit und Methode. Tübingen, DE: Mohr Siebeck, 1999/​Truth and Method. Translated by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. 2nd revised edn. New York, NY: Continuum, 2004.

GW 6: Gadamer, Hans Georg. Gesammelte Werke Band 6: Griechische Philosophie II. Tübingen, DE: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1985/​APM = Amicus Plato Magis Amica Veritas, PSL = Dialectic and Sophism in Plato’s Seventh Letter, LE = Logos and Ergon in Plato’s Lysis, TPI = The Proofs of Immortality in Plato’s Phaedo, PUD = Plato’s Unwritten Dialectic, IRT = Idea and Reality in Plato’s Timaeus in/​Dialogue and Dialectic: Eight Hermeneutical Studies on Plato. Translated by P. Christopher Smith. London, UK: Yale University Press, 1980.

PHI: Gadamer, Hans Georg. Platos dialektische Ethik und andere Studien Zur platonischen Philosophie. Hamburg, DE: F. Meiner, 1968/​Plato’s Dialectical Ethics: Phenomenological Interpretations Relating to the Philebus. Translated by Robert M. Wallace. New Haven, NY: Yale University Press, 1991.

PDE: Gadamer, Hans Georg. Platos dialektische Ethik und andere Studien Zur platonischen Philosophie. Hamburg, DE: F. Meiner, 1968/​PES = Plato’s Educational State, PP = Plato and the Poets, in Dialogue and Dialectic: Eight Hermeneutical Studies on Plato. Translated by P. Christopher Smith. London, UK: Yale University Press, 1980.

Plato

Republic, Parmenides, Phaedo, Timaeus, Theaetetus, Cratylus, Phaedrus, Philebus, Symposium, Meno, on Virtue, Letter II, Letter VII: Plato. Complete Works. Edited by John M. Cooper and D. S. Hutchinson. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997/​Platonis Opera. Edited by John Burnet. London, UK: Oxford University Press, 1903.

Aristotle

Topics, Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean EthicsThe Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation, Volume One and Two. Edited by Jonathan Barnes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984/​Aristotle’s Physics. Edited by William David Ross. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1966/​Metaphysics. Edited by William David Ross. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1924/​Ethica Nicomachea. Edited by Ingram Bywater. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1957/​Metaphysics; Oeconomica; Magna Moralia. Edited by Hugh Tredennick and G. Cyril Armstrong. Loeb Classical Library. London, UK: Heinemann, 1935.

Plotinus

Enneads: Plotinus, The Enneads. Edited by Lloyd P. Gerson. Translated by George Boys-​Stones, John M. Dillon, Lloyd P. Gerson, R. A. H. King, Andrew Smith and James Wilberding. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018/​Plotinus, 7 Volumes, Greek text with English translation by A. H. Armstrong. Cambridge, MA: Loeb Classical Library, 1968–​88.

Proclus

Theology of Plato: Proclus, The Theology of Plato. Translated by Thomas Taylor. Frome, Somerset: Prometheus Trust, 1995/​Portus, Aemilius (ed.), Procli Successoris Platonici in Platonis Theologiam Libri Sex, accessit Marini Neapolitani libellus de Vita Procli, item Conclusiones LV secundum Proclum, Hamburgi 1618 [Reprint Frankfurt am Main: Minerva, 1960].

Elements of Theology: Proclus, The Elements of Theology: A Revised Text with Translation, Introduction, and Commentary. 2nd edn. Translated by Eric R. Dodds. 2nd edn. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1963.

Parmenides CommentaryProclus’ Commentary on Plato’s Parmenides. Translated by Glenn R. Morrow and John M. Dillon. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987/​Cousin, V. (ed.), Procli philosophi Platonici opera inedita, 2nd edn. Paris, 1864 [1st edn 1820–​7] [Reprint of the Commentary on Plato’s Parmenides, Hildesheim: Olms 1961 and 2002; Reprint of the whole work, Frankfurt am Main: Minerva 1962], 617–​1244.

Details

Pages
XXIV, 380
Publication Year
2024
ISBN (PDF)
9781803744742
ISBN (ePUB)
9781803744759
ISBN (Softcover)
9781803744735
DOI
10.3726/b21756
Language
English
Publication date
2024 (August)
Keywords
Non-Discursive thinking Plato Heidegger Neoplatonism Other Platonist Beginning Plotinus Porphyry Iamblichus Proclus overcoming metaphysics fundamentals of truth
Published
Oxford, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, 2024. XXIV, 380.
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Biographical notes

Emile Alexandrov (Author)

Emile Alexandrov was awarded his PhD in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, Australia. Dr Alexandrov works on non-discursive thinking and overcoming metaphysics primarily in Ancient Greek and German philosophies, including the Islamic Golden Age and Japanese Buddhist philosophies. Dr Alexandrov is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the School of Advanced Studies at the University of Tyumen, Russia.

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