Martin Heidegger and the Truth About the Black Notebooks

Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann, ​was assistant of Eugen Fink (from 1961 to 1970) and last private assistant of Martin Heidegger (from 1972 to 1976). At the behest of Heidegger he was appointed main scientific editor responsible for the Gesamtausgabe starting in 1975, still in publication. From 1979 to 2000 he occupied the chair of philosophy at the University of Freiburg, Germany. His research not only focuses on the Heideggerian corpus, but is also concentrated on Husserl, Augustine, Descartes and Lebiniz.  Francesco Alfieri is professor of philosophy at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy. From 2014, he was appointed private assistant to professor Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann. He is the Editor-in-Chief for the annotated Italian edition of the complete works of H. Conrad-Martius and the book series “Philosophy – Phenomenology – Texts by Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka”, published by Morcelliana.

• Foreword.- Introduction.- Necessary Elucidations Concerning the Black Notebooks Of Naïve Instrumentalization, Staged on the Basis of Convenient Insights and Speculations.- The Black Notebooks Critical Historical Analysis without Commentary.- Concerning Certain Unpublished Letters Received By Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann.- The “Jewish Question” in the Black Notebooks in the Perspective of the “Critique of Metaphysics”.- Martin Heidegger Was Not an Anti-Semite (Hermann Heidegger).- Bibliography.- Index.

“The merit of von Herrmann’s and Alfieri’s precise and unparalleled scholarship lies in rediscovering the hermeneutic landscape of Heidegger’s writings, as well as unveiling the unthought dimensions of his philosophy. Through their collaboration, these two outstanding scholars both broaden and counterbalance the conversation concerning the recent controversies sparked by the Black Notebooks. In an especially timely way, their book stands out as one of the most important contributions to Heidegger studies in several years.” (Frank Schalow, eudia.org, Vol. 16, 2022)