Dasein - Monoskop

136 PART III
period of Being and Time\ Characteristic of this period, which lasts
from about 1919 to 1930, is the project of an existential analysis of
Dasein (Heidegger's term for 'human being'), i.e., an analysis of
Dasein's pre-theoretical and prepredicative understanding of Being
(Setn). Finally, the third phase begins about 1930 and ends with
Heidegger's death in 1976. In this last phase, the project of existential
analysis is "turned" into the "thought of Being". Here Heidegger
exorcises the last Husserlian residues from his own philosophy, and
comes to deny his earlier idea according to which us "mortals" can
work out an adequate understanding of Being. As we shall see, this
"turning" (Kehre) in Heidegger's thought leads to an even more radical
universal medium conception than the one we shall encounter in
Heidegger's middle period.
2. HEIDEGGER AS ADHERER TO THE CONCEPTION
OF LANGUAGE AS CALCULUS IN HIS EARLY WRITINGS
The first phase of Heidegger's thought, which I take to be represented
by his writings from 1912 to 1916, does not pose the same amount
of interpretational problems that we shall meet when turning to his
later views. This is due mainly to the fact that during his earliest
period Heidegger's concerns as well as his ways of expressing himself
are rather close to those of the neo-Kantian Heinrich Rickert, under
whom Heidegger studied in Freiburg from 1911 to 1916, and to those
of Husserl, who succeeded Rickert in 1916.
From the vantage point of this study, the earliest Heidegger
is interesting for several reasons. First, we find Heidegger aligning
himself to a considerable degree with many of those very ingredients
of Husserl's conception of language/logic as calculus that he
will later radically question. Second, we encounter an interesting
deviation from Husserl, in that Heidegger, under the influence of
Rickert, is more opposed to mathematical logic and formalism than
Husserl. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that Heidegger seems to be
far more intrigued by Husserl's Logical Investigations than by the
Ideas. Since the latter book was published in 1913, it could have left
a clearer mark on Heidegger's Habilitationsschrift 3 presented in 1915,