Abstract

In what is undoubtedly the most thorough and most sympathetic examination of Heidegger's later thought, Joan Stambaugh guides the reader through the density of multiple approaches to a postmetaphysical, poetic expression of the finitude of Being. Sifting her way through difficult and obscure formulations of the "open," "the strife between concealing and unconcealing," the distinction between what may be called relative nihilism and absolute nihilism, Heidegger's quarrel with Rilke's image of "the open" as infinite, and the theme of the "presencing of the clearing for self-concealing" in the as yet untranslated work Beiträge, Stambaugh offers running commentary, exposition, and interpretation on texts that are both unique and strange. Throughout, Heidegger's suggestion that Ereignis should properly be rendered as "appropriation" is followed and the "need" that Being has for Dasein's response to its "presencing" is emphasized.