The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics

William McNeill is Associate Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University. He is co-translator (with Julia Davis) of Hoelderlin's Hymn "The Ister" by Martin Heidegger. Nicholas Walker is Research Fellow in philosophy and literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

"In this text, which is crucial to understanding the transition from Heidegger's earlier to his later thinking, readers will find a helpful overview of Heidegger's conception of metaphysics ... a brilliant phenomenological analysis of boredom ... an investigation of the essence of life and animality ... and an analysis of the structure of the propositional statement ... " -Review of Metaphysics "This authoritative translation is essential to any Heidegger collection." - Choice " . . an important addition to the translations of Heidegger's lecture-courses . . Heidegger's voice can be heard with few of the jolting Germanicisms with which so many translations of Heidegger's texts have been burdened..." --International Philosophical Quarterly "The translators of these lectures have succeeded splendidly in giving readers an intimation of the tensely insistent tone of the original German. Heidegger's concern with a linguistic preconsciousness and with our entrancement before the enigma of existence remains intensely contemporary." --Choice "There is much that is new and valuable in this book, and McNeill and Walker's faithful translation makes it very accessible." --Review of Metaphysics "Whoever thought that Heidegger ... has no surprises left in him had better read this volume. If its rhetoric is 'hard and heavy' its thought is even harder and essentially more daring than Heideggerians ever imagined Heidegger could be." --David Farrell Krell