1889 – 1976
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher widely regarded as one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the 20th century. His magnum opus, Being and Time (1927), reoriented philosophy toward the question of Being (Sein) through an existential analysis of human existence (Dasein), profoundly shaping phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, and Continental philosophy.
Authored Being and Time (1927), reframing the question of Being through the existential analytic of Dasein
Developed fundamental ontology and the concepts of being-in-the-world, thrownness, and being-toward-death
Pioneered hermeneutic phenomenology, transforming Husserl's phenomenological method
Introduced influential later works on technology, language, and the history of Being (the 'Kehre' or turn)
Profoundly influenced thinkers including Sartre, Gadamer, Arendt, Levinas, and Derrida
The hermeneutical experience of truth is not a blind acceptance of the authority of tradition
claimThe semantics of a formal system rich enough to contain elementary mathematics cannot be fully defined in terms of mathematical functions within that same system.
claimWe can rationally believe both ourselves and God to be mental in nature from a practical point of view.