Günter Figal (15 July 1949 – 17 January 2024) was a German philosopher and professor of philosophy at University of Freiburg.
He was born in Langenberg. He was a specialist in the thought of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Martin Heidegger. His research focused on hermeneutics, phenomenology, German classical philosophy, and the history of metaphysics. Figal became the president of the Martin-Heidegger-Society in 2003 and resigned in 2015.
During a radio interview in 2015, Figal explicitly mentioned the Black Notebooks as a motivating factor for his resignation, specifying their antisemitic content—such as Heidegger's remark that Husserl's Jewishness limited his philosophical progression. Figal said these remarks were unworthy of a philosopher and that the content of the notebooks had come as a complete surprise to him. He drew a distinction between Heidegger's earlier work, up to and including Being and Time, and the mid-1930s writings where the antisemitic remarks appear.
Figal died in Ulm at the age of 74.
Bibliography Aesthetics as Phenomenology: The Appearance of Things (Studies in Continental Thought), Günter Figal (Author), Translated by Jerome Veith The Heidegger Reader (Studies in Continental Thought), Günter Figal (Editor), Jerome Veith (Translator) Simplicity. On a Bowl by Young-Jae Lee, Günter Figal (Author) Theodor W. Adorno. Das Naturschöne als spekulative Gedankenfigur. Bouvier, Bonn 1977, . Martin Heidegger. Phänomenologie der Freiheit. 3. Auflage. Beltz, Frankfurt am Main 1988, . Neuauflage: Martin Heidegger. Phänomenologie der Freiheit. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2013, . Martin Heidegger zur Einführung. 5. unveränderte Auflage. Junius, Hamburg 2007, . Für eine Philosophie von Freiheit und Streit: Politik – Ästhetik – Metaphysik. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1994, . Sokrates. 3. Auflage. Beck, München 2006, . Der Sinn des Verstehens. Beiträge zur hermeneutischen Philosophie. Reclam, Stuttgart 1996, . Nietzsche. Eine philosophische Einführung. Reclam, Stuttgart 1999, . Lebensverstricktheit und Abstandnahme. „Verhalten zu sich“ im Anschluß an Heidegger, Kierkegaard und Hegel. Attempto, Tübingen 2001, . Gegenständlichkeit. Das Hermeneutische und die Philosophie. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, . Verstehensfragen. Studien zur phänomenologisch-hermeneutischen Philosophie. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2009, . Erscheinungsdinge. Ästhetik als Phänomenologie. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2010, . Kunst. Philosophische Abhandlungen. Mohr, Tübingen 2012. . Einfachheit. Über eine Schale von Young-Jae Lee. Modo, Freiburg 2014, , (zweisprachig deutsch/englisch). Unscheinbarkeit. Der Raum der Phänomenologie. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2015, unveränderte Studienausgabe 2016, . Gibt es wirklich etwas draußen? Skizze einer realistischen Phänomenologie. In: Information Philosophie, März 2016, Heft 1, S. 8–17
References
External links Personal Website Figal at University of Freiburg