Reflections XII-XV (Black Notebooks 1939-1941)

Überlegungen XII–XV (Schwarze Hefte 1939–1941)

Translated to Russian by A. Grigoryev; under scientific editing by M. Mayatsky. Moscow: Gaidar Institute Press, 2020. – 344 p.

ISBN 978‑5‑93255‑568-2

In the autumn of 1931, the philosopher Martin Heidegger began to record his thoughts in small diaries that he called the schwarze Hefte, or “black notebooks.” By the early 1970s he had filled no fewer than thirty-four volumes with his handwritten reflections. Several of these notebooks, composed over a ten-year span from 1931 to 1941, have now appeared in three successive volumes of the official German-language series of Heidegger’s collected works. Their name describes their black oilcloth covering, but one could be forgiven for thinking it described their content. They will cast a dark shadow over Heidegger’s legacy.