Journal of Philosophical Investigations

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Emeritus Distinguished Professor, University of Tasmania, Australia

Abstract

At the Le Thor Seminar in 1969, Heidegger characterises his thinking as taking the form of what he calls a ‘topology of being’ (Topologie des Seins) and as thereby giving a key role to place (topos, Ort/Ortschaft). Much of my work over the last 25 years has been devoted to exploring how such a topology is indeed present in Heidegger’s thinking, both early and late, and so to showing how place figures in that thinking – to showing, in effect, how the questioning of being is also the thinking of place. The aim here is to provide a summary introduction to the topology that this exploration has aimed at uncovering, but to do so in a way that is focussed on the early work, especially Being and Time. To this end, the discussion proceeds through an explication of the topological elements that are present in the form of key terms and ideas such as facticity, questionability, being-in, existential spatiality, and there-being or Dasein. There is also a brief exploration of the way the term Dasein figures in German philosophical discourse prior to Heidegger in ways that are not only reflected in Heidegger’s early work, but also draw directly upon that term’s topological connotations.

Keywords

Augustin, B. (1996). The question of space: from Heidegger to Watsuj. Ecumene 3: 373-383.
Casey, E. (1997). The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History. University of California Press.
Cassin, B. & et al. (ed). (2014). Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon, translated by S. Rendall & et al. Princeton University Press.
Dreyfus, H. L. (1991). Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Division 1. MIT Press.
Feuerbach, L. (2014). The Fiery Brook: Selected Writings, translated by Z. Hanfi. Verso.
Grimm, J. & Grimm, W. (2023). ‘Dasein ‘, in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm auf CD-ROM und im Internet (Kompetenzzentrum -Trier Center for Digital Humanities, University of Trier), https://woerterbuchnetz.de/?sigle=DWB&lemid=D00858 – accessed August 2023.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and Time, trans. John Macquarie and Edward Robinson. Harper & Row.
Heidegger, M. (1966). Questions III et IV, translated by J. Beaufret & et al. Gallimard.
Heidegger, M. (1967). What is a Thing? translated by W. B. Barton Jr & V. Deutsch. South Bend, Gateway.
Heidegger, M. (1975a). Grundprobleme der Phänomenologie, ed. Hans-Helmuth Gander, Gesamtausgabe 24. Klostermann.
Heidegger, M. (1975b). Poetry, Language, Thought, translated by A. Hofstadter. Harper Colophon.
Heidegger, M. (1994). Ontology: The Hermeneutics of Facticity, translated by J. Buren. Indiana University Press.
Heidegger, M. (1998). Pathmarks, translated by W. McNeil. Cambridge University Press.
Heidegger, M. (2001). Zollikon Seminars, translated by F. Mayr & R. Askay. Northwestern University Press.
Heidegger, M. (2018). Zu eigenen Veröfentlichungen, Edited by F-Wilhelm von Herrmann, Gesamtausgabe 82. Klostermannn.
Heidegger, M. & Fink, E. (1993). Heraclitus Seminar, translated by C Seibert. Evanston, Northwestern University Press.
Heidegger, M. (1972). On Time and Being, translated by J. Stambaugh. Harper and Row.
Heidegger, M. (1992). Parmenides, translated by A. Schuwer & R. Rojcewicz, Indiana University Press.
Heidegger, M. (1993). Basic Concepts, trans. Gary E. Aylsworth. Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
Heidegger, M. (2012a). Contributions to Philosophy (of the Event), translated by R. Rojcewicz & D. Vallega-Neu, Indiana University Press.
Heidegger, M. (2012b). Four Seminars, translated by A. J. Mitchell & F. Raffoul. Indiana University Press.
Herder, J. G. (2022). Metakritik zur Kritik der reinen Vernunft, ed. Martin Bojda and Holger Gutschmidt. Felix Meiner Verlag.
Jacobi, F. H. (1994). A Taste of Madeleine: Notes Towards a Philosophy of Place. International Philosophical Quarterly, 34 (4), 433-451.
 Jacobi, F. H. (1998). Schriften zum Spinozastreit, Edited by K. Hammacher & I. Maria Piske, Werke Vol 1. Meiner; Frommann-Holzboog.
Jacobi, F. H. (2016). Heidegger and the Thinking of Place: Explorations in the Topology of Being. MIT Press.
Jacobi, F. H. (2018). Place and Experience: An Essay in Philosophical Topography. 2nd Edition, Routledge,
Jacobi, F. H. (2021). Rethinking Dwelling: Heidegger, Place, Architecture. Bloomsbury.
Jacobi, F. H. (2022). In the Brightness of Place: Topological thinking in and after Heidegger. SUNY Press.
Jacobi, F. H. (2024). On the Divine Things and Their Revelation, translated by P. Livieri. McGill.
Joseph, F. (1979). Heidegger and Sartre: An Essay on Being and Place. Columbia.
Malpas, J. (2006). Heidegger’s Topology: Being, Place, World. MIT Press.
Mitchell, A. J. (2015). The Fourfold: Reading the Late Heidegger. Northwestern University Press.
Morell, J. D. (1846). An Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century. W. Pickering.
Pascal, D. (2014). Dasein/Existenz, in Cassin, pp.195-200. Digital Dictionary of the German Language, <https://www.dwds.de/wb/Dasein>, accessed 8/24.
Sandkaule, B. (2024). ‘Dasein enthüllen’, in Birgit Sandkaulen, Stefan Schick and Oliver Koch (eds.), Jacobi-Wörterbuch Online, https://jwo.saw-leipzig.de/articles/bbfcf47b - accessed August 2024.
Sheehan. T. (2015). Making Sense of Heidegger: A Paradigm Shift. Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield.
Simmel, G. (1997). Simmel on Culture, translated and edited by D. Frisby & M. Featherstone. Sage.
Sloterdijk, P. (2011). Bubbles, Spheres Volume I: Microspherology, translated by W. Hoban Semiotext(e).
Tetsuro, W. (1988). Climate and Culture: A Philosophical Study, translated by G. Bownas, Greenwood Press.
Ulrich, W. (1972), Dasein, Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, Vol. 2, pp.15-22. Edited by J. Ritter Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Vycinas, V. (1961). Earth and Gods: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Martinus Nijhof.
Wrathall, M. (ed.) (2013). Heidegger on Space and Spatiality, in The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger’s Being and Time, pp.129-144, Cambridge University Press.
CAPTCHA Image