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Work #1616 · Middle (Kehre)

Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)

Martin Heidegger
1936-38 (published posthumously 1989) · German
Esoteric philosophical treatise (esoteric Denkweg) · Heideggerian phenomenology / late-Heideggerian philosophy of the event / fundamental ontology

Heidegger's 1936-38 'Beiträge zur Philosophie' — the second magnum opus, the philosophy of the event after the Kehre

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event) (Middle (Kehre))
Time · Extent Finite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Finite
Space · Ontological Status Relational
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Emergent
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Partial
Observer · Physicality Both
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Impersonal
Observer · Moral Authority Reason
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Emergent
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Relational
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Non-conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)

1936-38 composition during the Nazi period; 1989 posthumous publication. The Beiträge are temporally framed by the rise of Nazism (which Heidegger initially supported) and the period of his withdrawal from active political engagement.

Space

Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)

Freiburg / Black Forest (Todtnauberg hut). The text's fugal-musical structure deliberately resists ordinary academic-philosophical discursive space.

Matter

Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)

Esoteric philosophical treatise — Heidegger's most demanding and least systematic text. The Beiträge consist of 281 numbered sections grouped into six 'fugues' plus prelude and afterword.

Observer

Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)

Middle Heidegger (Kehre period). The Beiträge mark the transition between the early Heidegger of Being and Time and the late Heidegger of the Bremen Lectures and 'On the Way to Language'.

Energy

Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)

Esoteric-Denkweg energies. Heidegger himself said the Beiträge could not be published in his lifetime because the public could not be expected to read them adequately; the text is composed as preparation for a possible 'other beginning' of Western thinking.

Information

Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)

Posthumous magnum opus of 281 numbered sections. The work introduces the central post-Kehre vocabulary (Ereignis, Seyn, Lichtung-Verbergung, das letzte Gott, die Zu-künftigen) that recurs across Heidegger's later writings.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Contributions to Philosophy (Of the Event)

Heidegger's second magnum opus; principal text of the post-Being-and-Time Kehre. Its esoteric form has invited extensive scholarly controversy: some (Krell, Polt, Vallega-Neu) read it as Heidegger's most demanding philosophical work; others (Sheehan, Faye) see it as evasive in its relation to Heidegger's Nazi-period thinking, which the 2014- Black Notebooks confirmed.