Course Description

A selection of readings from Martin Heidegger’s late work, focusing on his discussion of thinking, poetry, gods, works of art and things. Late Heidegger was consumed with the question how cultures in the modern West can gather and preserve meaningful possibilities of existence for the people who live in them. We will focus for some time especially on Heidegger’s reading of the German poet Hölderlin, whom he interprets as the paradigm of a poet who resonates with and preserves meaning in “destitute times”. We will also examine Heidegger’s difficult views concerning technology and its role in our modern world.