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268 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Michael E. Zimmerman, Eclipse of the Self." The Development of Heidegger's Concept of Authenticity, Athens: Ohio University Press, 1981. Pp. xxx + 331. $19.95 (Cloth), $9-95 (Paper). This interesting book is mistitled. It is really not concerned to "eclipse" the self but to defend Heidegger's notion of what might be termed "its higher reach," which is a central drive for religious thought, something the author argues Heidegger steadfastly pursues. The book is faithful to its subtitle: it traces the development of Heidegger 's understanding of authenticity from the beginning, through Being and Time, to the later "mystical" writings; that is to say from the "resoluteness" of Being and Time to its later denouement as "releasement." As Zimmerman notes, this philosophic journey follows a dual track (judged as accordant with the journey of western thought): a theoretical-ontological concern with the nature of Being as such and a quasi-religious quest for self-understanding, wisdom, intellectualized salvation. To this scholarly exposition of the stages of Heidegger's way to a developed concept of personal authenticity, the author brings a mastery of much of the Heidegger corpus and an amazingly extensive familiarity with the secondary literature. But this book is not only a chronicle of Heidegger's journey; implicitly it is of Zimmerman 's as well. Intertwined as the two tracks are throughout, this is an intensely personal book; one might have preferred that this personal undercurrent had been made more explicit from the start. We begin with Heidegger's early religious concerns and end with the suggestion that a basic compatability between Heidegger's [ate writings and teachings of Zen Buddhism is not only closer than Heidegger may have suspected but also points to the road beyond where Heidegger has taken us, which may yet be travelled. The book provides an unusual and perceptive look at Heidegger's early concerns, traces the concept of authenticity through Being and Time (three chapters), and reports (five chapters) on the later writings as they bear on the theme. Throughout Zimmerman sees the early influence of Bultmann being brought to bear. Much of Heidegger's work is understood as a "demythologizing" of Christian themes: the distinction between authenticity and inauthenticity is the demythologizing of the distinction between faithfulness and sinfulness (p. xxii); the self-concealment of Being is an analogue to the (Nietzschean) "death of God" (p. 198) as Augenblick is to Kairos (p. 135), and the notion of Ereignis is to that of revelation (p. 197); the culminating concept of "releasement" is seen as a demythologized Christian mysticism (p. 266) that is analogous to "the advent of grace" (p. 197) and to redemption (p. 248 ). Heidegger speaks, Zimmerman says, "in a way very similar to how a religious person would describe the journey toward salvation" (p. 249). He details Heidegger's encounters with the thought of Bultmann, Kierkegaard, Nietzche, Dilthey, Luther, and St. Paul. But amazingly nothing is said of Husserl's influence nor how the departure from Husserlian phenomenology bears on the notion of authenticity. And amazingly again, although the Kantianism that pervades Being and Time is indicated, although we are told that Heidegger's quest can be seen as an attempt to transcend transcendental philosophy, we are never told how he first BOOK REVIEWS 269 encountered Kant, why Kantian themes pervade the range of his work, why the Critical philosophy provided his point of departure, just why he sought to turn his back on it. Repeatedly we are told that Heidegger "was trying to work his way out of the transcendental tradition" (p. 113); but why did he enter into it and carry it with him? Already in his first Kant book (intended for the uncompleted half of Being and Time) he wrote of his concern with Ontology and said, without qualification: "Transcendental philosophy = Ontology." One may carry themes from earlier into later work; this does not ensure essential coherence between them; one should be cautious in reading the later works back into the earlier. Insightful as Zimmerman's book often is, it is marred by some flaws. It offers no explanations of the reasons why Heidegger took the several turns he did, why he...

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