Heidegger’s 1929 lecture made existential mood, not reason, the gateway to Being.

Evidence

Just as for Lukács the proletariat became the true philosopher of history, so for Heidegger the true philosopher was the existing human being. So long as man exists, philosophizing of some sort occurs.' To grasp with the understanding the whole of what exists is not possible. What constantly happens, however, is that the whole of what exists comes in moodsfor example, in boredom. Profound boredom, drifting here and there in the abysses of our existence like a muffling fog, removes all things and men and oneself along with it into a remarkable indifference. This boredom reveals beings as a whole.’ … As a lieutenant of the nothing', man is essentially transcendent, surpassing beings as a whole, metaphysical by nature. Negation in the fields of science, logic and understanding is merely a diluted form of nihilation. The leading nihilating behaviour’ is shown in unyielding antagonism and stinging rebuke', in galling failure and merciless prohibition’, in bitter privation'. Those who are shaken by the breath of anxiety in the most lasting way are those daring ones’ who `are sustained by that on which they expend themselvesin order thus to preserve a final greatness in existence’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 414

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader Frankfurt School conversation about Heidegger’s existentialism versus critical theory — Adorno’s later ‘The Jargon of Authenticity’ critique and Lukács’s parallel role as ‘true philosopher of history’. — connects to: Heidegger’s 1929 lecture could induce near-ecstatic states in listeners. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 249; Heidegger’s ‘turn’ moved his thought toward receptivity and away from resoluteness. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 310
• DEFINE: Defines Heidegger’s core early-existentialist vocabulary: moods, boredom, anxiety, ‘lieutenant of the nothing’, nihilation as the ground of negation.

Broader Connections

• Heidegger’s 1929 lecture could induce near-ecstatic states in listeners. #expands (0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 249
• Heidegger’s ‘turn’ moved his thought toward receptivity and away from resoluteness. #complicates (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 310