A way into Being and Time


Heidegger’s book can be difficult to begin, even when its questions already feel close to your life. In these four sessions, I help you get oriented in its central questions and vocabulary.

Four sessions. Four questions.

1. The question of being

What do we mean when we say that something is?


2. Being-in-the-world

What does Heidegger mean by being-in-the-world, and why does he begin his account of human existence there?


3. Dasein as a whole

What would an understanding of Dasein as a whole need to include?


4. Authenticity

What is at stake in the distinction between authentic and inauthentic existence?

What you get


Four recorded sessions, about four hours and twenty minutes in total, with audio files, course notes, and the bonus What is Dasein? The lectures use the Schmidt/Stambaugh translation.


For readers coming to Heidegger for the first time, or returning to a book they have struggled to read. Follow the lectures alongside your own reading, with the four questions above as starting points.