Heidegger read Kant as dismantling Enlightenment epistemology in favor of ontology
Evidence
Heidegger, who had recently published Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics, believed that Kant had dismantled those values by showing that we can have no access to reality or true knowledge of any kind. He also argued that Kant’s main interest was not primarily in the question of knowledge at all but in ontology: the question of Being. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 242
Cassirer was Jewish, tall, calm and elegant, with his white hair swept up into a striking but antiquated bouffant style verging on a minor beehive. Heidegger was short, evasive and compelling, with a pinched moustache and hair combed severely flat. Their debates centred on the philosophy of Kant, for their interpretations of that philosopher differed dramatically. Cassirer saw Kant as the last great representative of the Enlightenment values of reason, knowledge and freedom. Heidegger, who had recently published Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics, believed that Kant had dismantled those values by showing that we can have no access to reality or true knowledge of any kind. He also argued that Kant’s main interest was not primarily in the question of knowledge at all but in ontology: the question of Being. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 242
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces ontology (the question of Being) as Heidegger’s central concern, a key orientation concept for the reader.
- XREF: Connects to the broader Kant-vs-Continental divide in philosophy; on the reader’s side, this frames the existentialist break from Enlightenment rationalism that later chapters (Sartre’s phenomenology) build on. — connects to: Bantu causality is ontological while Hume and Kant make it epistemological — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 1019; Kracauer read Kant’s epistemology as a prolegomenon to metaphysics, not scepticism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 271
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 242
Broader Connections
- Bantu causality is ontological while Hume and Kant make it epistemological
#expands(0.72) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 1019