Heidegger's Contributions to Philosophy

In her concise introduction to Martin Heidegger's second most important work, "Contributions to Philosophy" (From Enowning), Daniela Vallega-Neu provides guidance and structure to readers attempting to navigate this much-discussed but difficult text. "Contributions" reflects Heidegger's struggle to think at the edge of words and to bring to language what remains beyond the written or the spoken. In view of the centrality of "Being and Time" to Heidegger interpretation in recent decades, Vallega-Neu introduces "Contributions" first by reconsidering "Being and Time" in light of the transformative turn from prepositional thought to the poietic, performative character of thinking and language that marks the passage between the two works. She then discusses each of the "joinings" that structure the composition of "Contributions". This graceful introduction provides students and scholars with a much-needed key for unlocking the thinking that underlies Heidegger's later writings.