Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher and a seminal thinker in the Continental tradition of philosophy. He is best known for his contributions to Being and Time, but his work has influenced many thinkers in a variety of fields, including theology, psychology, literature, and architecture.
Philosopher was born in Messkirch, Germany on September 26, 1889. His father was a Catholic teacher who died when Heidegger was only 14 years old. After graduating from high school in 1908, he studied at several universities before earning his doctorate at Freiburg University in 1914 with a dissertation on Duns Scotus’s concept of haecceity (the individual essence of any being).
After serving in World War I as a military interpreter, he returned to Freiburg to teach medieval philosophy (he would remain there until 1928). During this time he developed an interest in phenomenology—the study of the structure of experience—and began writing about the problem of human existence (Dasein). In 1925 he published Being and Time which established him as one of Europe’s leading philosophers.
Heidegger was accused of being pro-Nazi when he wrote about “the inner truth and greatness of this movement” without mentioning its anti-Semitic nature (Rees). However, Rees argues that this omission is not evidence of his support for Nazism but rather because Heidegger saw it as irrelevant to his philosophical concerns (Rees).
