Martin Heidegger

German Philosopher

1889-1976

A student of Husserl, whom Heidegger succeeded as professor of philosophy at Freiburg, he was also influenced by Kierkegaard, Dilthey, and Nietzsche. Heidegger's major work, Being and Time (1927), analyzes the concepts of "care," "mood," and the individual's relationship to death, relates authenticity of being as well as the anguish of modern society to the individual's confrontation with his own temporality. Although he rejected the title, Heidegger is regarded as one of the founders of 20th-century Existentialism, and he influenced the work of Sartre. His later work included studies of poetry and of dehumanization in modern society.