Existence And Being

The atmosphere of silence all around provided a faithful setting for Heideggers philosophy. I could not help comparing it with the atmosphere I had encountered in the house of Professor Berdyaev near Paris and that of Professor Jaspers in Heidelberg. In every case, the external world faithfully reflected the world of the mind. In Berdyaevs case it was the spirit of communion; in Jasperss that of spiritual engagement. But in Heideggers case it was the spirit of overwhelming solitude. With the four essays in this book, which Professor Heidegger gave me, this much-discussed philosopher now appears for the first time before the English-speaking world. As Professor Heidegger pointed out to me, the four essays are complementary and have an organic unity. Two deal with the essence of metaphysics, the other two with the essence of poetry. The two Hِlderlin studies, in Heideggers words, were "born out of a necessity of thought" conditioned by the questions raised in the metaphysical papers. STEFAN SCHIMANSKI