Heidegger’s 1929 lecture could induce near-ecstatic states in listeners.

Evidence

Heidegger’s performance was terrifying and darkly thrilling. It was also puzzling in places, which added to its effect. As he came to an end, at least one listener, Heinrich Wiegand Petzet, felt on the verge of falling to the ground in an ecstatic faint. ‘The things of the world lay open and manifest in an almost aching brilliance’, Petzet wrote. ‘For a brief moment I felt as if I had had a glimpse into the ground and foundation of the world.’ — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 249

Categorization

• CANDY: A vivid, self-contained anecdote about a philosopher’s lecture nearly making a listener faint — nice dinner-party material.
• QUESTION: Is Petzet’s account generally treated as reliable, or embellished in retrospect by a devoted friend of Heidegger?
• XREF: connects to: Heidegger’s inaugural lecture opened with a surprising deadpan joke — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 246; Heidegger staged his lectures as controlled theatre and derided spontaneous discussion — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 191; Being and Time’s publication was a theatrical, near-ceremonial event among Heidegger’s students — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 194 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Heidegger framed being as a question meant to astonish rather than to be answered #expands (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 173
• Heidegger accesses Being through ordinary everydayness rather than unusual states #complicates (0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 212