German Studies Association

Transcendental Heidegger by Steven Crowell; Jeff Malpas; Heidegger's Topology: Being, Place,
World by Jeff Malpas
Review by: Anthony Adler
German Studies Review, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Feb., 2009), pp. 191-193
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the German Studies Association
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191

Reviews

representational style for the first time.The younger generation in the Federal
Republic increasinglyno longer identifiedwith their grandfatherlyhead of state
and also desired amore critical and potentially more divisive examination of the
recent past than he had been willing to undertake.
G?nther's study is awelcome addition to the literatureonTheodor Heuss and
on the Federal Republic's relations with thewider world in the 1950s. It success
on
fullyuses themedium of statevisits to provide important insights West German
the same era.
society during
those visits were
organized.

THOMAS

W. MAULUCCI,

It also

contains

much

interesting

information

on how

JR.,American InternationalCollege

Steven Crowell and JeffMalpas, eds. TranscendentalHeidegger. Stanford, CA:

StanfordUniversity Press, 2007. Pp. ix, 309. Paper $25.
Jeff
Malpas. Heideggers Topology:Being, Place,World. Cambridge, MA: MIT
2006. Pp. x, 413. Cloth $38.

Press,

Few philosophers have had as polarizing an effect asMartin Heidegger. By pro

Western philosophy and implementing
posing a radical breakwith the tradition of
a new, frequently shiftingvocabulary,Heidegger leftreaders littlechoice but to ac
cept his project on his terms,reject itoutright,or turn itsown critical gesture against
it in a transformativecritique.The divisions between analytic and continental phi
losophy, aswell as philosophy and literarytheory,continue to reflect these choices.
Recent years have nevertheless seen promising signs (notably thework ofMi
chael Friedman, Andrew Cutrofello, and JohnMcCumber) of a new willingness to
engage in dialogue across at least the firstof these fault lines.And without doubt
the nonpartisan reading ofHeidegger does and will continue to play a crucial role
in these philosophical trials.
TranscendentalHeidegger, a collection of essays edited by Steven Crowell and
Jeff
Malpas, provides an excellent introduction to this turn inHeidegger schol
arship.The authors whose work is brought together in this collection include
phenomenologists, Heidegger scholars coming from both the continental and
analytic traditions, and specialists inGerman idealism.What unites them, despite
theirdiverse philosophical backgrounds and filiations, is a commitment to bridge

building readings ofHeidegger.

Crowell andMalpas claim in the introduction that the aim of this collection
is both to remedy the apparent neglect of the transcendental as a theme inHei
a broader case for the "continuing significance of
degger's thought and tomake
the transcendental in philosophy" (1). TranscendentalHeidegger is strongestwith
a
regard to the firstof these tasks and does particularly fine job of showing how

Heidegger

transforms

the

scope

beyond its formulation inKant

and

nature

and Husserl,

of

transcendental

inquiry,

moving

and thus coming to regard it as a

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192

German Studies Review

32/1 (2009)

question not just of the conditions of the possibility of knowledge or even of all
intentional

but?as

experience,

Robert

Pippin

the

argues?of

of

"'understanding

being' upon which all directedness towards objects 'as' something depends," and
indeed "the very possibility of any intelligibility or meaning at all" (3). A num
as the contributions byWilliam Blattner,
ber of essays in the collection?such
David Carr, Steven Crowley, Daniel O. Dahlstrom, Dermot Moran, andMark
a willingness to translate
Okrent?combine
Heidegger out of his idiom with
to
his
Taken
genuine sensitivity
project.
together these castmuch light on both
the historical transformations that the concept of the transcendental undergoes in
Heidegger and the philosophical function that it assumes forhim.
With regard to the second task, however, TranscendentalHeidegger is less
successful.The essays byHerman Philipse, Christina Lafont, and Rachel Zuckert
make a valiant attempt to put Heidegger in dialogue with other philosophers by
attributing to him a certain interpretation of the transcendental thatwould be
open to critique from amore general perspective of philosophical transcendental
ism.Yet, thismore general perspective is for themost partKantian and, by failing
to appreciate the radicalness ofHeidegger's departure from the tradition, leads to
more misunderstanding than insight.The
heavy weight of a Habermasian Kant
for the failure of the essays
in this collection
symptomatic
contributions
of
French
and
significant
post-structuralism,

is, moreover,
the

ognize

to rec

above

all

Derrida, towards an understanding of the transcendental both inHeidegger and

in itsmore general philosophical significance.
Perhaps themost interesting and powerful question thatTranscendentalHei
degger raises iswhether Heidegger's abandonment of the transcendental in the
zur Philosophiemay itselfbe conceived as a radicalization of the transcen
Beitr?ge
dental
aims

tendency,
to

analyze

towards

moving

a "distinctive

in a way

phenomena

the phenomena as such" (2). Jeff

Malpas

tion head-on

and prove

to be

mode

that draws

the most

only

of nonreductive
on

elements

analysis
already

that

given

in

and Robert Pippin approach this ques

to the collection.

contributions

exciting

Pippin's readable and lively essay argues thatHeidegger, because of his in

sistence on the contingency of meaning and the temporality and historicity of
Being, engages in "exemplification" rather than transcendental grounding. Pippin
is perhaps too ready to dismiss a "transcendental Heidegger," but he is absolutely
right to foreground the tension between the transcendental and historical.
Malpas' essay on "Heidegger's Topology ofBeing" suggests a similarwillingness
to conceive of the problem of the transcendental as
dynamic and historical rather
than

static.

Malpas
Since

problematic.
into the world)

arises

suggests

that

transcendence

Heidegger

had

(understood

out of the
very difference

to abandon

transcendental

as

over from Dasein

the crossing
that it seeks to overcome,
it cannot

ultimately grasp theway inwhich Being and beings belong together. Instead, the
later

Heidegger

focuses

ever more

on

the problem

of "place."

Thus,

transcendental

philosophy becomes a "Topology of Being."

Malpas' Heideggers Topology:Being, Place,World develops the argument of this
essay, aiming to provide a thorough account ofHeidegger's philosophy in terms

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193

Reviews

of the concept of place. Heideggers Topology, the introduction suggests, should

be

regarded

as a

companion

volume

to the author's

Place

and Experience,

as well

as a yet-unfinished study of Donald Davidson (1). This suggests an ambitious

project to overcome the continental-analytic divide through a philosophy of
an
place. The core of Heideggers Topology,which consists of five chapters and
are
and
fifth
which
the
introduction,
provide a
chapters,
lengthy third, fourth,
and
the
middle
of
Time,
period of
"topological" interpretation, respectively, Being
the Beitr?ge, and the late period. Malpas demonstrates a thorough knowledge of
own development, which focuses
Heidegger, and his elucidation ofHeidegger's
on theway inwhich the "topological" displaces the "transcendental" and plays an
evermore central role, is illuminating.Ultimately, indeed,Malpas does make a
strong case for the central place of place inHeidegger's thought.Yet, despite the
can be a frustratingread: it
general clarityofMalpas' writing,Heideggers Topology
to
make
similar
and
back
circles
yet,while the significance of
points,
constantly
in
is
compellingly presented, place is itselfsituated so firmly,and
place Heidegger
so exclusively, inHeidegger's thought that it is hard to understand it as anything
but aHeideggerian topos.One wishes, though, thatMalpas, referring to his other
work, had focused less on Heidegger, considering place not only in relation to the
history of philosophy and political thought, but also to literature, art, aesthetics,
architecture,politics, and even everyday life.This is especially so, since, in talking
about Heidegger, Malpas seems mainly to speak to the converted. And while he
addresses the political dangers ofHeidegger's rhetoric of place, his treatment of
as well as his final invocation
of democracy,
of a place-based
these questions,
concept
most
seem rather
But
serious
with
the
problem
Topology,
Heideggers
perfunctory.

inmy opinion, is its failure to address the challenge that the concept of writing,
as conceived byDerrida, poses to thenotion of place. One worries indeed thathis
attempt to heal the riftbetween analytic and continental philosophy could only
succeed

through

ANTHONY

the exclusion

ADLER,

of literary

theory

and French

post-structuralism.

YonseiUniversity (Korea)

Gisela Bock and Daniel Sch?npflug, eds. FriedrichMeinecke in seinerZeit (Beitr?ge

zurUniversit?ts- undWissenschaftsgeschichte, 19). Stuttgart:Franz Steiner, 2006.
Pp. 294. Cloth 44.
Friedrich Meinecke
mentator

politischen

war ein bedeutender deutscher Historiker, wichtiger Kom

Geschehens

und?nicht

zuletzt?der

Gr?ndungsrektor

der

Freien Universit?t (FU) Berlin. So istFriedrichMeinecke auch derNamensgeber

f?r das dortige Geschichtsinstitut. Zum f?nfzigstenTodestag Meineckes, dem 6.
Februar 2004, veranstaltetenHistoriker dieses Instituts ein Symposion zu seinem
Leben undWerk. Die Beitr?ge dieserTagung bilden den Grundstock f?r den hier
zu besprechenden Sammelband. Dabei versammelten die Herausgeber Gisela
Bock und Daniel Sch?npflug Autoren, die mit dreiUniversit?ten verbunden sind,

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