Zollikon Seminars: Protocols - Conversations - Letters

About this book

Long awaited and eagerly anticipated this remarkable volume allows English-speaking readers to experience a profound dialogue between the German philosopher Martin Heidegger and the Swiss psychiatrist Medard Boss. A product of their warm friendship Zollikon Seminars chronicles an extraordinary exchange of ideas. Heidegger strove to transcend the bounds of philosophy while Boss and his colleagues in the scientific community sought to understand their patients and their world. The result: the best and clearest introduction to Heideggers philosophy available. Boss approached Heidegger asking for help in reflective thinking on the nature of Heideggers work. Soon they were holding annual two-week meetings in Bosss home in Zollikon Switzerland. The protocols from these seminars recorded by Boss and reviewed corrected and supplemented by Heidegger himself make up one part of this volume. They are augmented by Bosss record of the conversations he had with Heidegger in the days between seminars and by excerpts from the hundreds of letters the philosopher wrote to Boss between 1947 and 1971.