Edith Stein as a Critic of Heidegger's Fundamental Ontology

Abstract

While Stein truly admired Heidegger, she was nevertheless deeplysceptical of the direction that his philosophy took. What caused such a flattering assessment of Heidegger was primarily, but not exclusively, her reading of Being and Time. In this work,Stein saw the development of the issues that fascinated her for a long time and whichwere for her more important than epistemological studies that dominated Husserl’s research.It was a matter of individual, unique, human existence. Her critical review ofHeidegger's book shows two elements that set the way for the development of a comprehensive,systematic hermeneutical philosophy. The first is the stress on the importance ofthe human community against the domination of das Man. The second component is heraccount of death, in response to Heidegger's description of being-towards-death