PHIL 907 Heidegger's The Basic Problems of Phenomenology
A careful reading of The Basic Problems of Phenomenology, a lecture course given by Martin Heidegger in 1927. The course deepens the analyses begun in Being and Time and belongs to Heidegger's so-called "metaphysical" phase.
In this course, Heidegger presents four "theses about Being" that have appeared in Western history of philosophy at different stages of its development: 1) "Being is not a real predicate" (Kant); 2) "to the constitution of the Being of a being there belong essence and existence" (Post-Aristotelian Medieval ontology); 3) "the basic ways of Being are Being of nature and Being of mind (Descartes)"; 4) "Every being, regardless of Its particular way of Being, can be addressed and talked about by means of the is-copula" (Logic). Heidegger delves into each one of the four theses through an original phenomenological-hermeneutical approach, and argues in the end that phenomenology is the basic problem of ontology.