Abstract

John Richardson has written an extraordinarily clear and well-informed introduction to Heidegger. The book is very accessible and will serve well the purpose of introducing even a beginner in philosophy or a general audience to Heidegger’s thought. The book will also be a valuable resource for Heidegger scholars. In fact, Richardson’s major achievement is to expose an interpretation of Heidegger’s oeuvre that represents something akin to a “theological turn” in the pragmatist tradition of reading Heidegger. Richardson begins his introduction by commenting the difficulties beginning readers of Heidegger may face, tracing such difficulties back to Heidegger’s attempt at a most simple thinking. The “deeper problem of access” to Heidegger's texts lies not in the grasping of particular notions or a system of claims but in “that he wants, he preaches, a different kind of understanding than the sort or sorts we’re used to” . Richardson explains this difference in unde ..