Being and Time
by Martin Heidegger · first published 2023
27% recommend61% neutral12% critical
Why HN recommends it
Dense, demanding phenomenology whose readiness-to-hand analysis one reader found more useful for usability evaluation than HCI books. Suits readers with philosophy background, ideally paired with Dreyfus's lectures.
Common criticism: Very difficult and abstruse prose, hard to read without preparation
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Heidegger's lecture course at the University of Marburg in the summer of 1925, an early version of ‘Being and Time’ (1927), offers a unique glimpse into the motivations that prompted the writing of this great philosopher's masterwork and the presuppositions that gave shape to it.\ The book embarks upon a provisional description of what Heidegger calls ‘Dasein’, the field in which both being and time become manifest. Heidegger analyzes Dasein in its everydayness in a deepening sequence of terms: being-in-the-world, worldhood, and care as the being of Dasein.\ The course ends by sketching the
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…thinking Kant - Critique of Pure Reason Kant - Critique of Judgment Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit Hegel - Logic von Kleist - Marionette Theatre Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death Heidegger - Being and Time Sartre - Being and Nothingness Sartre - Flies Sartre - Nausea Deleuze - Difference and Repetition Kafka - Metamorphosis Kafka - The Castle Lem - Magellan Nebula Lem - His Master's Voice Cioran…
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗Heidegger is, contrary to popular opinion, not that unreadable. Stambaugh's revised translation of Being and Time is really good. The problem is laypeople expect to be able to understand advanced philosophy without knowing anything about the history that led to this point. Nobody complains about, e.g., Weinberg's…
on “The Hermeneutical Imperative” ↗"Will to Power" by Friedrich Nietzsche, who you'll probably love if you like Rand. "A Thousand Plateaus" by Deleuze & Guattari. A psychedelic philosophy of complexity. Not exactly an airtight philosophical system, but it will blow your mind several times per page. "Being & Time" by Martin Heidegger. An intense, logical investigation of individual existence. A deeply nuanced philosophical tak
on “Ask HN: Good books?” ↗Without a doubt, Heidegger's explanation of readiness-to-hand in Being and Time has done more for my usability and process inefficiency evaluating skills than even Don Norman's Design of Everyday Things or any HCI book I've ever read. While Norman's book comes in a strong second,…
on “Articles, Ideas, Books and/or Concepts that have changed your life” ↗I don't know about 'life-changing' but the best books I ever read were: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Ludwig Wittgenstein) Being and Time (Martin Heidegger) Of Grammatology (Jacques Derrida) Writing and Difference (Jacques Derrida) Martian Timeslip (Philip K. Dick) Ringworld (Larry Niven) The Forever War (Joe…
on “Ask HN: What were your "life-changing" books?” ↗Heidegger: Sein und Zeit https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21477742-martin-heidegge... (translation: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/92307.Being_and_Time ). Great philosophy, and, alas, nazi author. But you can't choose your family either.
on “Ask HN: What books fundamentally changed the way you think about the world?” ↗Not that I've actually read the book myself, but Being and Time by Heidegger seems to fit your description. Reading it will feel like running into a brick wall, so I suggest reading about Heidegger for context first: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heidegger/…
on “Ask HN: Book that is completely opposite of how you think as a software dev?” ↗If you want to get a handle on Heidegger, I recommend working through Being and Time while listening to Prof Hubert Dreyfus's UC Berkeley lecture series, 'Philosophy 185 - Heidegger'. I heard them on ITunes U long ago, but they are also available on archive.org [0]. Dreyfus wrote a critique…
on “Heidegger, the homesick philosopher” ↗I could not disagree more. There are 1000s of examples of people becoming better people after forgetting. See "Regarding Henry" and Heidegger "Being and time."
on “You can't optimize your way to being a good person” ↗Not OP, but I have read Being and Time on and off over the years, and every time, I am blown away how precise Heidegger describes things and the being of things. Granted, I am German, so I can directly read the source without needing a translator.…
on “"They're made out of weights"” ↗being and time - Martin Heidegger
on “Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?” ↗I think the quality of advice you're getting on this thread is very mixed. Some of the books mentioned are absolutely great-- like "Being and Time", or Husserl's "Logical Investigations"-- but incredibly difficult to read unprepared. If you were ready to be reading them, you wouldn't be asking the question here. The two books you mention in the…
on “Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?” ↗…revealed. This is the basic knowledge I assume you have after 10 years. If you are not familiar, I recommend Simon Critchley's 'Black Socrates', and 'The Ethics of Deconstruction' in addition to the Seminars, Being and Time, and Violence and Metaphysics obviously. The way it reckons with your question, is that these points of tension, even when they are not fully resolved, allow us to come to a place of improved understanding…
on “Understanding Heidegger on technology (2014)” ↗…complex structures. Obviously this requires the reader to first learn the vocabulary and - granted - that is hard and challenging. I have a notebook here , which I consult and modify evertine i dive into Being and Time. But as I said. It keeps on giving. I often try to convey arguments and descriptions to others without falling back into Heideggers jargon, and its sometimes very hard and requires a lot of bloating .…
on “"They're made out of weights"” ↗Unsurprisingly, this list is heavily biased towards analytic philosophers. They don't even mention Heidegger, the most influential 20th Century philosopher in the Continental tradition. Being and Time is his most influential book. They don't mention Sartre, who probably comes in 2nd. Being and Nothingness is his most famous book (you can tell the Heidegger influence just from the title). Their token…
on “Eminent Philosophers Name the Most Important Philosophy Books from 1950-2000” ↗