Heidegger's Being and Time - Reading schedule for 2015-2016

Wednesday 5pm, fortnightly

Samuel Alexander building, A104

First session:

The Introduction of Being and Time (pp. 19-64 (§§ 1-8))

Wednesday, 30 September 2015

After Merleau-Ponty and Hegel in the last two years, the Manchester Phenomenology Reading Group dedicates the 2015-2016 academic year to Martin Heidegger's Being and Time.

As in previous years, our aim is to read through a massive volume of phenomenology's classics which are often referred to, but rarely actually read in their entirety. The reading group meets fortnightly, six times in each terms, and therefore the selected book is divided into 12 portions. Our meetings offer an informal and friendly forum to discuss our reading experience, and eventually get a better understanding of what always is complex, nerve-wrecking and thought-provoking.

Our reference English translation of Heidegger's Sein und Zeit (SZ) is the following:

Martin Heidegger, Being and Time. Trans. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1962)

There are many reprints of the above translation, most recently by HarperCollins. All reprints, new and used, keep the layout and pagination of the first 1962 edition.

The reference German original is published by Max Niemeyer Verlag (Tübingen) which corresponds to Band 2 of the Heidegger Gesamtausgabe published by Vittorio Klostermann Verlag (Frankfurt). Please note that the Macquarrie-Robinson translation includes page numbers on the margin which refer to the above German originals.

A careful study of the table of contents of the SZ suggested that shorter sections are denser in philosophical terms and longer ones are slightly easier to digest. Therefore, the suggested reading schedule keeps sections together and creates some shorter and some longer reading portions, especially during the Autumn term.

Page numbers in the reading schedule below refer to the Macquarrie-Robinson translation. I have also included chapter numbers which appear both in the German original and the English translation.

Autumn term 2015

30 September: pp. 19-64 (§§ 1-8)

14 October: pp. 65-90 (§§ 9-13)

28 October: pp. 91-148 (§§ 14-24)

11 November: pp. 149-168 (§§ 25-27)

25 November: pp. 169-224 (§§ 28-38)

9 December: pp. 225-273 (§§ 39-44)

Spring term 2016

3 February: pp. 274-311 (§§ 45-53)

17 February: pp. 312-348 (§§ 54-60)

2 March: pp. 349-382 (§§ 61-66)

16 March: pp. 383-423 (§§ 67-71)

13 April: pp. 424-455 (§§ 72-77)

27 April: pp. 456-488 (§§ 78-83)

The first portion is probably the most demanding, partly for the reason that this is where Heidegger introduces his method and the idiosyncratic vocabulary which dominates the SZ. Please do not let yourself be intimidated.

Please send me an e-mail (marton.ribary@gmail.com), if possible, if you are planning to join the reading group, and encourage your friends and colleagues to join us. The reading group is open to all.