Translating Heidegger

Despite Martin Heidegger’s influence on twentieth-century philosophy, understanding his way of thinking is difficult if one relies solely on the English translations of his work. Since Gilbert Ryle misjudged his work in a 1929 review of Sein und Zeit, Heidegger’s philosophy has remained an enigma to many scholars who cannot read the original German texts.

In Translating Heidegger, Groth points to mistranslations as the root cause of misunderstanding Heidegger. Translators…