Albert Hofstadter is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His translation of Heidegger's Poetry, Language, Thought received a National Book Award.

• Translator's PrefaceTranslator's IntroductionIntroduction1. Exposition and General Division of the theme2. The concept of philosophy. Philosophy and world-view3. Philosophy as science of being4. The four theses about being and the basic problems of phenomenology5. The character of ontological method. The three basic components of phenomenological method6. Outline of the coursePart One: Critical Phenomenological Discussion of Some Traditional Theses about BeingChapter One: Kant's Thesis: Being Is Not a Real Predicate7. The content of the Kantian thesis8. Phenomenological analysis of the explanation of the concept of being or of existence given by Kant9. Demonstration of the need for a more fundamental formulation of the problem of the thesis and of a more radical foundation of this problemChapter Two: The Thesis of Medeval Ontology Derived from Aristotle: To the Constitution of the Being of a Being There Belong Essence and Existence10. The Content of the thesis and its traditional discussion11. Phenomenological clarification of the problem underlying the second thesis12. Proof of the inadequate foundation of the traditional treatment of the problemChapter Three: The Thesis of Modern Ontology: The Basic Ways of Being Are the Being of Nature (res Extensa) and the Being of Mind (Res Cogitans)13. Characterization of the ontological distinction between res extensa and res cogitans with the aid of the Kantian formulation of the problem14. Phenomenological critique of the Kantian solution and demonstration of the need to pose the question in fundamental principle15. The fundamental problem of the multiplicity of ways of being and of the unity of the concept of being in generalChapter Four: The Thesis of Logic: Every Being, Regardless of Its Particular Way of Being, Can Be Addressed and Talked About by Means of the "Is". The Being of the Copula16. Delineation of the ontological problem of the copula with reference to some characteristic arguments in the course of the histroy of logic17. Being as copula and the phenomenological problem of assertion18. Assertional truth, the idea of truth in general, and its relation to the concept of beingPart Two: The Fundamental Ontological Question of the Meaning of Being in GeneralThe Basic Structures and Basic Ways of BeingChapter One: The Problem of the Ontological Difference19. Time and temporality20. temporality [Zeitlichkeit] and Temporality [Temporalitat]21. Temporality [Temporalitat] and being22. Being and beings. The ontological differenceEditor's EpilogueTranslator's Appendix: A Note on the Da and the DaseinLexicon

"This volume belongs in every collection on Heidegger and is required reading for anyone interested in this major thinker."—Religious Studies Review"In Albert Hofstadter's excellent translation, we can listen in as Heidegger clearly and patiently explains . . . the ontological difference."—Times Literary Supplement"Perhaps the most generally accessible text that Heidegger published. . . . The translation is superb."—Key Reporter"For all students and scholars, Basic Problems will provide the "missing link" between Husserl and Heidegger, between phenomenology and Being and Time."—Teaching Philosophy