Groundless Grounds: A Study of Wittgenstein and Heidegger
Lee Braver
Abstract
Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger are two of the most important—and two of the most difficult—philosophers of the twentieth century, indelibly influencing the course of continental and analytic philosophy, respectively. This book argues that the views of both thinkers emerge from a fundamental attempt to create a philosophy which has dispensed with everything transcendent so that we may be satisfied with the human. Examining the central topics of their thought in detail, the author finds that Wittgenstein and Heidegger construct a philosophy based on original finitude—finitude without t ... More
Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger are two of the most important—and two of the most difficult—philosophers of the twentieth century, indelibly influencing the course of continental and analytic philosophy, respectively. This book argues that the views of both thinkers emerge from a fundamental attempt to create a philosophy which has dispensed with everything transcendent so that we may be satisfied with the human. Examining the central topics of their thought in detail, the author finds that Wittgenstein and Heidegger construct a philosophy based on original finitude—finitude without the contrast of the infinite. In the author’s analysis, the two difficult bodies of work studied here offer mutual illumination rather than compounded obscurity. Moreover, bringing the most influential thinkers in continental and analytic philosophy into dialogue with each other may enable broader conversations between these two divergent branches of philosophy. The author’s account shows that both Wittgenstein and Heidegger strive to construct a new conception of reason, free of the illusions of the past and appropriate to the kind of beings that we are.
Keywords:
analytic philosophy,
Ludwig Wittgenstein,
Martin Heidegger,
original finitude,
infinite,
reason,
philosophers,
continental philosophy,
human,
influential thinkers
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780262016896 |
| Published to MIT Press Scholarship Online: August 2013 |
DOI:10.7551/mitpress/9780262016896.001.0001 |
