Abstract

In his Heidegger and the Contradiction of Being, Filippo Casati argues that Heidegger’s investigation of Being generates a family of paradoxes. According to Casati, Heidegger’s fundamental philosophical commitments entail several contradictions, such as that Being both is and is not an entity, and that Being both can and cannot be the topic of assertions. Most previous interpreters who have become aware of these paradoxes have tried to show that Heidegger is not really committed to the contradictory conclusions. Casati argues (1) that Heidegger regards these contradictions as inescapable, and (2) that Heidegger thinks the contradictions are actually true. Heidegger is therefore, according to Casati, a dialetheist. I agree with Casati that the contradictions are deeply embedded in Heidegger’s thought. But I believe that Casati’s dialetheist interpretation fails to capture Heidegger’s actual attitude toward them. Casati – like his predecessors – assumes that Heidegger seeks to resolve the paradoxes. I suggest that Heidegger keeps them unresolved. He is determined to live with the contradictions, but not in the way Casati suggests. Reading Heidegger as keeping the contradictions alive sheds light on his philosophical method and on the status of logic in his investigation. In addition, this reading captures the ethical fervor of Heidegger’s writing better than the alternatives.