Here, Too, the Gods are Present: Heidegger’s 1943 Heraclitus Course

Lee Braver (University of South Florida)

Here, Too, the Gods are Present: 

Heidegger’s 1943 Heraclitus Course

British Society for Phenomenology

BSP Online Course

Registration open now

In order that we or those who come after us are even able to hear the saying, we must first slowly learn how to listen to the thinking word (Heraclitus, p. 53).

Heidegger’s 1943 Heraclitus course is one of his best although, translated into English in 2018, it has not received a great deal of scholarly attention. It represents one of his best discussions of polysemy–when words or ideas are used in multiple senses at once–as well as some startlingly original insights into some of Heraclitus’ obscure fragments.

“The attempt to think toward the inception of Occidental thinking must itself be slow beyond measure. Haste is anathema to essential thinking…. The hastiness of essential thinking is subject to the law of slowness. Slow haste determines the way toward the inceptual. The inceptual word demands of us the kind of diligent care in which every step allows the next to come forth from it” (Heraclitus, pp. 48-49).

In our slow, close reading, we will be paying special attention to language. We will look at how Heraclitus creates extraordinary effects with polysemy. We will examine the ontology and temporality of language, how it stops representing and starts being, and how these changes in our understanding of language revise how we think about many other topics.

Course Leader: Lee Braver (University of South Florida – Emeritus)

Sessions: 6 sessions over 6 weeks - catch-up recordings available for missed sessions

Dates: March 7 / 14 / 21 / 28 and April 4 / 11 – weekly – Saturdays

Time: 10:30am – 12:00 noon

Location: Online (Teams)

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