Making Sense of Heidegger

Making Sense of Heidegger presents a radically new reading of Heideggers notoriously difficult oeuvre. Clearly written and rigorously grounded in the whole of Heideggers writings, Thomas Sheehans latest book argues for the strict unity of Heideggers thought on the basis of three theses: that his work was phenomenological from beginning to the end; that being refers to the meaningful presence of things in the world of human concerns; and that what makes such intelligibility possible is the existential structure of human being as the thrown-open or appropriated clearing. Sheehan offers a compelling alternative to the classical paradigm that has dominated Heidegger research over the last half-century, as well as a valuable retranslation of the key terms in Heidegger's lexicon. This important book opens a new path in Heidegger research that will stimulate dialogue not only within Heidegger studies but also with philosophers outside the phenomenological tradition and scholars in theology, literary criticism, and existential psychiatry.