“The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking... The question of Being has never been adequately formulated. Our entire philosophical tradition has forgotten or covered over this fundamental question.”
—
Martin Heidegger
Being and Time (1927), Introduction; What is Metaphysics? (1929)
Commentary
Heidegger's central complaint is that Western metaphysics has forgotten the question of Being itself, obsessing instead with beings (entities, objects). His entire philosophical project aims to recover and reformulate this primordial question.
This 'retrieval' (Wiederholung) of the question of Being is radical: it requires stepping back from centuries of metaphysical assumptions. Heidegger's influence in 20th-century philosophy stems largely from this reorientation, though his own answers remain controversial and obscure.
Commentary
Heidegger's central complaint is that Western metaphysics has forgotten the question of Being itself, obsessing instead with beings (entities, objects). His entire philosophical project aims to recover and reformulate this primordial question.
This 'retrieval' (Wiederholung) of the question of Being is radical: it requires stepping back from centuries of metaphysical assumptions. Heidegger's influence in 20th-century philosophy stems largely from this reorientation, though his own answers remain controversial and obscure.