Martin Heidegger(born September 26, 1889,Messkirch,Schwarzwald, Germany—died May 26, 1976, Messkirch,West Germany), German philosopher, counted among the mainexponents ofexistentialism. His groundbreaking workinontology(the philosophical study of being, or existence)andmetaphysicsdetermined the course of 20th-century philosophyon the European continent and exerted an enormous influence onvirtually every other humanisticdiscipline, includingliterarycriticism,hermeneutics,psychology, andtheology.Heidegger was the son of asextonof the localRomanCatholicchurch in Messkirch,Germany. Although he grew up inhumble circumstances, his obviousintellectualgifts earned him areligious scholarship to pursue hissecondary educationin theneighbouring town of Konstanz.While in his 20s Heidegger studied at the University of FreiburgunderHeinrich RickertandEdmund Husserl. He received adoctorate in philosophy in 1913 with a dissertationonpsychologism,Die Lehre vom Urteil im Psychologismus: einkritisch-positiver Beitrag zur Logik(“The Doctrine of Judgment inPsychologism: A Critical-Positive Contribution to Logic”). In 1915he completed his habilitation thesis (a requirement for teaching atthe university level in Germany) on theScholastictheologianJohnDuns Scotus.In the following year Heidegger’s study of classicalProtestanttextsbyMartin Luther,John Calvin, and others led to a spiritual crisis,the result of which was his rejection of the religion of hisyouth,Roman Catholicism. He completed his break withCatholicism by marrying aLutheran, Elfride Petri, in 1917.Heidegger PhilosophyBrentano and Aristotle, as well as the latter's medieval scholastic interpreters, were thefoundations of Heidegger's philosophical growth. Indeed, in many respects, Aristotle'sdemand in the Metaphysics to know what it is that unifies all potential forms of Being (or'is-ness') is the inquiry that sparks and propels Heidegger's philosophy.MartinHeideggeris a German philosopher.Heideggershows “Human reality” (Dasein) is often lost in inauthentic andeveryday life. But human being can also find his authenticity andopen the mystery of the Being, source of all things.
