Abstract

Michel Haar's book strikes an admirable balance between a sympathetic analysis of, and a critical dialogue with Heidegger's work. In clear and elegant prose, Haar elucidates obscure passages and raises critical questions about issues that are usually ignored. He argues that despite Heidegger's preoccupation with the "history of being," he was also concerned with the "nonhistorical," that is, with what cannot be included within history. Heidegger maintained that the history of being began with the Greeks and culminates in modern technology, defined as the disclosure of all entities as a completely available "standing reserve" that is useful for enhancing the endless drive for more power. Haar asks: Did Heidegger reduce being to its history? and as a result, did he develop his own version of Hegel's system of world history? Haar answers in the negative: "In effect the development of the history of Being from the Greek logos to modern technology does not exclude, but implies a reserve, an opacity, a reverse side [envers] that it is never possible to disclose. It is this withdrawn and non-manifest dimension that makes history a destiny, and not the logical unfolding that is in Hegel answerable to an eternal necessity". According to Haar, the earth constitutes the basis for the nonhistorical domain that cannot be encompassed within the history of being.