Heidegger, Metaphysics and the Univocity of Being

Description

In Heidegger, Metaphysics and the Univocity of Being, Philip Tonner presents an interpretation of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger in terms of the doctrine of the 'univocity of being'. According to the doctrine of univocity there is a fundamental concept of being that is truly predicable of everything that exists. This book explores Heidegger's engagement with the work of John Duns Scotus, who raised philosophical univocity to its historical apotheosis. Early in his career, Heidegger wrote a book-length study of what he took to be a philosophical text of Duns Scotus'. Yet, the word 'univocity' rarely features in translations of Heidegger's works. Tonner shows, by way of a comprehensive discussion of Heidegger's philosophy, that a univocal notion of being in fact plays a distinctive and crucial role in his thought. This book thus presents a novel interpretation of Heidegger's work as a whole that builds on a suggested interpretation by Gilles Deleuze in Difference and Repetition and casts a new light on Heidegger's philosophy, clearly illuminating his debt to Duns Scotus.

Philip Tonner is Research Support Officer for Glasgow Museums. He is an Honorary Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, UK and is Co-Director of the Centre for Technology and Phenomenological Research in the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute, also at the University of Glasgow.

"Philip Tonner's Heidegger, Metaphysics and the Univocity of Being is a persuasive new interpretation of Heidegger that takes as its overarching theme Heidegger's appropriation of the Scotistic concept of univocity of being and shows how the concept shines forth at crucial points throughout Heidegger's writings. The book, written with a degree of clarity not often found in works on Heidegger, achieves a great deal in a relatively modest space and constitutes a valuable contribution to Heideggerian research." - Alexander Broadie, Glasgow University, UK Title mention in Times Higher Education, January 2010