Ebook: Transcending Reason: Heidegger on Rationality

The received view of Martin Heidegger s work is that he leaves little room for reason in the practice of philosophy or the conduct of life. Citing his much-scorned remark that reason is the stiff-necked adversary of thought , critics argue that Heidegger s philosophy effectively severs the tie between reason and normativity, leaving anyone who adheres to his position without recourse to justifying reasons for their beliefs and actions. Transcending Reason is a collection of essays by leading Heidegger scholars that challenges this view by exploring new ways to understand Heidegger s approach to the relationship between reason, normativity, and the philosophical methodology that gives us access to these issues. The volume points to Heidegger s novel approach to reason understood in terms of what he calls Dasein s transcendence the ability to occupy the world as a space of normatively structured meanings in which we navigate our striving to be. By examining the strengths and weaknesses of this new and innovative take on Heidegger s philosophy, this collection considers the possibility that he does not sever but rather reconceives the relation between reason and normativity.