A New Interpretation of Heidegger on the Pre-Socratics

In The Presocratics in the Thought of Martin Heidegger, W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz presents a new interpretation of this important theme in the later Heidegger. Korab-Karpowicz argues that the relationship between the early and late Heidegger can be understood as analogous to the relationship between a question and an answer; the later Heidegger provides the answer to the question which the early Heidegger posed, but he discovers this answer in the fragments of Anaximander, Heraclitus and Parmenides. I argue that Korab-Karpowicz fails to substantiate his claim and exemplifies both the vices which Heidegger scholarship ought to avoid – obscurantism on the one hand and trivialization on the other. In doing so, however, Korab-Karpowicz performs an important service; he shows what Heidegger scholarship should strive to avoid.