Abstract

The translators have been conscious, perhaps overly conscious, of the linguistic difficulties involved in their task, and have provided the reader with a glossary of German terms, an exhaustive index, and an elaborate series of footnotes, largely devoted to linguistic and grammatical considerations, which are found on almost every page. Neither space, nor time, nor energy has been spared in working out this apparatus which is sometimes, as in the indication of the original German paging on the margin, genuinely helpful to the reader. It would have been well if they had been equally concerned and equally careful to deal with the difficulties involved in interpreting this pioneering text, which struggles to describe phenomena hitherto unnoticed through new concepts and new uses of language for which dictionary definitions are a wholly inadequate guide. There is no question that the translators know their dictionaries. But to anyone who has seriously studied Heidegger's text in the original, serious questions arise at many critical points as to whether they understand the text. As a result of such failures to follow the meaning, the version now before us is a sadly imperfect and often misleading rendition of Heidegger's thought. In order to assist those who read this article in avoiding misunderstandings of the text, let me first comment briefly on a few mistranslations of basic points. Afterwards I shall turn to a brief summary and criticism of Heidegger's own thought.