This is a competent guide for new students of Heidegger, though it is necessarily crude to have to simplify and reorganize his thinking. The chapter death, time, and history is probably the most helpful, for it is some of Heidegger's most challenging material. Also included are essays on Heidegger's thoughts on psychotherapy, ecology, Buddhism, and technology. Although the essay on Heidegger's politics is fairly amateurish. An average text on the whole.

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO HEIDEGGER. Edited by Charles Guignon. 389 pp. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1993 and reprinted. ISBN 0-521-385970-0 (Pbk).

This excellent collection of articles for students and the general reader contains, in addition to an extremely clear and useful 40-page introductory overview of Heidegger's thought and career by Charles Guignon, the following thirteen pieces:

1. The Question of Being: Heidegger's Project - DOROTHEA FREDE; 2. Reading a life : Heidegger and hard times - THOMAS SHEEHAN; 3. The unity of Heidegger's thought - FREDERICK A. OLAFSON; 4. Intentionality and world : Division I of 'Being and Time' - HARRISON HALL; 5. Time and phenomenology in Husserl and Heidegger - ROBERT J. DOSTAL; 6. Heidegger and the hermeneutic turn - DAVID COUZENS HOY; 7. Death, time, history : Division II of 'Being and Time' - PIOTR HOFFMAN; 8. Authenticity, moral values, and psychotherapy - CHARLES B. GUIGNON; 9. Heidegger, Buddhism, and deep ecology - MICHAEL E. ZIMMERMAN; 10. Heidegger and theology - JOHN D. CAPUTO; 11. Heidegger on the connection between nihilism, art, technology, and politics - HUBERT L. DREYFUS; 12. Engaged agency and background in Heidegger - CHARLES TAYLOR; 13. Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and the reification of language - RICHARD RORTY.

Although many of these contributors are distinguished Heidegger scholars, most do seem to have successfully pitched their discussion at a level suited to the non-specialist, and although this book is by no means a 'Heidegger Made Simple' (a certain amount of background in both philosophy and Heidegger would be useful) most readers should come away with an enhanced understanding of Heidegger and a desire to know more. The absolute beginner, however, might prefer - after reading Charles Guignon's Introduction, and before plunging into the articles - to read a more extended general introduction such as George Steiner's 'Martin Heidegger' (1987).

Besides helping the general reader and non-specialist, the Companion will also be of use to more advanced students as providing a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of Heidegger, and here the inclusion of Zimmerman's excellent article is both gratifying and noteworthy. Too often, books about Heidegger completely overlook the fact that many of the most brilliant minds in Asia have spent the last two thousand years pondering some of the very same problems that exercised Heidegger, and that a knowledge of their thoughts about such matters as Being or Time can sometimes help us to better understand Heidegger.

Readers, for example, might take a look at Book 11 of Dogen's 'Shobogenzo,' UJI (Existence-Time or Being-Time), or at such works as Graham Parkes 'Heidegger and Asian Thought' or Richard Mays 'Heidegger's Hidden Sources : East Asian Influences on his Work' (see my Listmania List 'Understanding Heidegger' for details). Dorothea Frede, in her 'The Question of Being,' asks (without answering) the question : "What led to the "breakthrough" that provided Heidegger with the clue for attacking the question of the meaning of being in a new way . . . ?" (page 51). Who knows? Might it have been Asian thought? It certainly begins to look so.

The Companion also includes a List of contributors, a Chronology, a curiously organized 22-page Bibliography of both German and English works (which would have been easier to consult if the items had been spaced) and an Index. It is well-printed in a large, clear font on excellent paper, is bound in a sturdy glossy wrapper, and comes with a glued spine. Well organized and well produced, The Companion becomes a fitting addition to the distinguished Cambridge series and should be of interest to all serious students of Heidegger.