Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher who is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. His main interests were ontology, metaphysics, language, art, poetry, and technology. He developed a distinctive approach to philosophy known as phenomenology, which aims to describe the structures of human experience and reveal the meaning of being. He also explored the existential and hermeneutic dimensions of human existence, especially in relation to the historical and cultural context of modernity. He is best known for his magnum opus Being and Time (1927), which analyzes the fundamental question of what it means to be. He also wrote many other influential works, such as Contributions to Philosophy (1936-1938), The Question Concerning Technology (1954), and What is Called Thinking? (1951-1952). He was also a controversial figure due to his involvement with Nazism and his support for Adolf Hitler. He was appointed as the rector of the University of Freiburg in 1933 and joined the Nazi Party, but resigned from both positions in 1934. He was later banned from teaching by the Allied forces after World War II until 1951. He died in 1976 in his hometown of Meßkirch. His legacy and influence are still widely debated and discussed in various fields of philosophy and beyond.