Volume 35 of Heidegger's Complete Works comprises a lecture course given at the University of Freiburg in 1932, five years after the publication of Being and Time. During this period, Heidegger was at the height of his creative powers, which are on full display in this clear and imaginative text. In it, Heidegger leads his students in a close reading of two of the earliest philosophical source documents, fragments by Greek thinkers Anaximander and Parmenides. Heidegger develops their common theme of Being and non-being and shows that the question of Being is indeed the origin of Western philosophy. His engagement with these Greek texts is as much of a return to beginnings as it is a potential reawakening of philosophical wonder and inquiry in the present.

Table of Contents:
Contents Translator's Introduction The beginning of Western philosophy Interpretation of Anaximander and Parmenides Part One The dictum of Anaximander of Miletus, 6th-5th Century Introduction 1. The mission and the dictum Chapter I The first phase of the interpretation A. The first section of the statement 2. The theme of the dictum: beings as a whole B. The second section of the statement 3. Beings in the relation of compliance and noncompliance C. The third section of the statement 4. Being and time Chapter II The second phase of the interpretation 5. The unitary content of the pronouncement on the basis of its central core Chapter III The other dictum 6. The sovereign source of beings as the empowering power of appearance Part Two Interposed considerations 7. Four objections to the interpretation 8. The negative relation to the beginning 9. Meditation on the "current situation" 10. The grounding utterance of Being 11. The actual asking of the question of Being 12. Review of the linguistic usage 13. The basic question of existence 14. Commentary on our concept of existence 15. The full rendering of the understanding of Being 16. The liberation toward freedom 17. Transition to Parmenides: the first explicit and coherent unfolding of the question of Being Part Three The "didactic poem" of Parmenides of Elea 6th-5th Century 18. Introduction 19. Interpretation of fragment 1. Preparation for the question of Being 20. Interpretation of fragments 4 and 5 21. Interpretation of fragments 6 and 7 22. Interpretation of fragment 8 23. The fragments 9, 12, 13, 10, 11, 14, 16, 19 (in the order of their interpretation) Conclusion 24. The inceptual question of Being; the law of philosophy Appendix Drafts and plans for the lecture course Editor's afterword German-English Glossary English-German Glossary