In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

442 FRAMES
The Year in the Book
There can thus be no doubt that the complete published text of Sein und
Zeit dates back to the year 1926. Theodore Kisiel has shown that
Heidegger even invented some of the book's central concepts, such as
"thrownness," "existential" (Existential), "lighting," and "repetition,"
during the difficult final months of the writing process.24 Of course, these
recently established historical facts neither diminish nor increase the
philosophical importance of Sein und Zeit. But they justify my using
Heidegger's book in my effort to make present the worlds of 1926.
Although the evocation of such historical presence has been the explicit
goal of my experiment, one may of course legitimately ask whether the
results of this experiment can be used in a way that relates to the
standards of history as a discipline. This concluding chapter is therefore
devoted to seeking a historical understanding of Sein und Zeit on the
basis of my re-presentation of the year 1926 and in comparison with two
contemporary novels, one by Hans Friedrich Blunck and the other by
Carl Van Vechten.
"Understanding," in this context, does not primarily mean trying to
reconstruct Heidegger's subjective intentions and views as he wrote his
manuscript.25 And since I have no certified competence in the field, I
cannot claim that the following reading of Sein und Zeit, against the
backdrop of so many brilliant interpretations of Heidegger's most famous
work, will yield any new philosophical insights. Rather, I wish to
show that some of the principal philosophical concerns in his book, some
decisive elements in the structure of its argument, and perhaps Heidegger's
entire contribution to Western philosophy26 can be read as originating
in a reaction to the emotional, intellectual, and political environments
of 1926.27 This aspect of Sein und Zeit becomes visible when one
rereads the book from the perspective of historical simultaneity. To be
more specific, it is my impression that the cultural codes which I have
described as typical of 1926, specifically those threatened by possible
collapse, were the driving elements behind Heidegger's thought. Occasionally,
even some of the much more concrete "arrays" that occupy the
primary level in my historical reconstruction of 1926 can appear as
elements of discontinuity within the highly abstract philosophical discourse
of Sein und Zeit. My most ambitious claim, however, is that