Editing Being and Time (section)

==Background==
[[Richard Wolin]] notes that the work "implicitly adopted the critique of mass society" epitomized earlier by [[Søren Kierkegaard]] and [[Friedrich Nietzsche]].<ref name="britannica.com">Wolin, R., [https://britannica.com/biography/Martin-Heidegger-German-philosopher#ref135624 "Martin Heidegger—German philosopher"], ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', November 18, 2009.</ref> "Elitist complaints about the 'dictatorship of public opinion' were common currency to the German mandarins of the twenties," according to [[Jürgen Habermas]] (1989).<ref>Habermas, Jürgen, and John McCumber. "Work and Weltanschauung: The Heidegger Controversy from a German Perspective." ''Critical Inquiry'', vol. 15, no. 2, The University of Chicago Press, 1989, pp. 431–56</ref> Wolin writes that ''Being and Time'' is "suffused by a sensibility derived from secularized [[Protestantism]]" and its stress on [[original sin]]. The human condition is portrayed as "essentially a curse."<ref name="britannica.com"/> Wolin cites the work's extended emphasis on "emotionally laden concepts" like guilt, conscience, angst and death.

The book is likened to a secularized version of [[Martin Luther]]'s project, which aimed to turn Christian theology back to an earlier and more "original" phase. Taking this view, [[John D. Caputo]] notes that Heidegger made a systematic study of Luther in the 1920s after training for 10 years as a [[Catholic theologian]].<ref>Caputo, John D. (1978). ''The Mystical Element in Heidegger's Thought'', Ohio University Press</ref> Similarly, [[Hubert Dreyfus]] likens Division II of the volume to a secularized version of [[Kierkegaard]]'s Christianity.<ref>[[Hubert Dreyfus|Dreyfus, H. L.]] (1991). ''Being-in-the-world: A Commentary on Heidegger's ''Being and Time'', División I'', MIT Press</ref> Almost all central concepts of ''Being and Time'' are derived from [[Augustine]], Luther, and Kierkegaard, according to [[Christian Lotz]].<ref>Luther’s influence on Heidegger. ''Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation'', ed. Mark A. Lamport and George Thomas Kurian, London: Rowman & Littlefield 2017</ref>

The critic [[George Steiner]] argues that ''Being and Time'' is a product of the crisis of German culture following Germany's defeat in [[World War I]]. In this respect Steiner compared it to [[Ernst Bloch]]'s ''The Spirit of Utopia'' (1918), [[Oswald Spengler]]'s ''[[The Decline of the West]]'' (1918), [[Franz Rosenzweig]]'s ''The Star of Redemption'' (1921), [[Karl Barth]]'s ''[[The Epistle to the Romans (Barth)|The Epistle to the Romans]]'' (1922), and [[Adolf Hitler]]'s ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' (1925).<ref>{{cite book |author=Steiner, George |title=Martin Heidegger |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |year=1991 |pages=vii–viii |isbn=0-226-77232-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/martinheidegger000stei}}</ref>

In terms of structure, ''Being and Time'' consists of the lengthy two-part introduction, followed by Division One, the "Preparatory Fundamental Analysis of Dasein," and Division Two, "Dasein and Temporality." Heidegger originally planned to write a separate, second volume, but quickly abandoned the project. The unwritten "second half" was to include a critique of Western philosophy.<ref>''Sein und Zeit'', pp. 39–40.</ref>