The Saying of Anaximander

Martin Heidegger

Newcomb Livraria Press

About this ebook

A new 2024 translation of Heidegger's early work "The Saying of Anaximander", which is one of the 6 major papers published within the massive work "Holzwege" originally published in 1914. This edition contains a new afterword by the Translator, a timeline of Heidegger's life and works, a philosophic index of core Heideggerian concepts and a guide for Existentialist terminology across 19th and 20th century Existentialists. This translation is designed for readability and accessibility to Heidegger's enigmatic and dense philosophy. Complex and specific philosophic terms are translated as literally as possible and academic footnotes have been removed to ensure easy reading. Heidegger builds an expansive interpretation of Anaximander's only surviving fragment of text. He uses this one sentence as a starting point to discuss themes of being, becoming, and the enigmatic core of human existence. Heidegger reads Anaximander's saying in a way that aligns with his own philosophical inquiries into the emergence and withdrawal of being, the interplay of presence and absence, and the fundamental question of Being. The collection this paper comes from, Holzwege, is second only to "Being and Time" in fame. Here he levies some of his most perceptive commentary on Hegel, Descartes, Nietzsche, Anaximander, Rilke, and Hölderlin. Wood Paths consists of a collection of essays that reflect on philosophical and existential questions through the analysis of art, poetry, and history. The original German title "Holzwege" refers to the logging paths in German forests, which anyone who's hiked in Germany knows are always dead-ends. Hence, this is sometimes translated as "dead ends" or "logging roads" or "Off the Beaten Track" or something along those lines, as this is what the title means- the dead end trails of philosophy and the inherent obscurity of the pursuit of Being. Heidegger uses these essays to explore his ontological inquiries, particularly the nature of being and the relationship between human beings and the world around them.