New Books in Critical Theory Martin Heidegger, "Being and Time: An Annotated Translation" (Yale UP, 2026)
Cyril Welch, professor emeritus and translator of Heidegger’s Being and Time, shares how decades of classroom work shaped his new annotated translation. He talks about reading Being with novels, Heidegger’s ties to Greek philosophy, phenomenology’s method, everydayness and authenticity, translation choices between colloquial English and German terms, and the text’s unfinished, threshold-like character.
01:25:49
Read Being and Time With A Novel
- Read Being and Time alongside a novel to make Heidegger's abstract moves concrete and relatable for students.
- Welch favoured Faulkner's Go Down, Moses because its turning points map onto Heideggerian themes and prompt personal engagement.
Heidegger Redeems Greek Philosophy
- Heidegger reads Plato and Aristotle as already posing the same question Being and Time addresses: our being-in-a-world rather than being-in-nature.
- Knowing Greek sharpens these resonances; Welch argues translations miss much of that prior historicity.
Phenomenology Is Looking For Yourself
- Phenomenology means looking directly at phenomena and suspending inherited opinions so you see things as they show themselves.
- Welch compares it to a physiotherapist's careful attention: stick with the phenomenon rather than immediately seeking causes behind it.
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Intro
00:00 • 2min
Welch's Background and Teaching Origins
01:52 • 1min
Classroom Translation Practice
03:11 • 7min
Reading Being with a Novel
10:22 • 3min
Heidegger and Greek Philosophy
13:45 • 9min
Phenomenology: Look Directly, Suspend Assumptions
22:59 • 8min
Everydayness and the 'Big Crunch'
30:38 • 9min
How We See: Historicity and Communal Vision
39:51 • 5min
Authenticity as Taking Things As Your Own
44:47 • 8min
Heidegger's Colloquial and Profound Style
52:46 • 3min
Translation Choices: Colloquial English vs. German Terms
55:41 • 5min
Footnotes, Marginalia, and Textual Vibrancy
01:00:34 • 6min
Incomplete Project and the Threshold Metaphor
01:07:02 • 6min
Later Works: Different Forms and New Thresholds
01:12:54 • 2min
Youthful System-Building Versus Mature Limits
01:15:01 • 33sec
Advice for Readers: Read with Joy and Ancestors
01:15:34 • 6min
Outro
01:21:06 • 27sec
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an autobiography.
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The book critiques traditional education for its failure to prepare him for the scientific and technological advancements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Adams reflects on his experiences, friendships, and self-education, highlighting his bewilderment and concern over the rapid progress of science and technology.
The autobiography is narrated in the third person and includes humorous and sarcastic self-criticism, as well as insights into notable events and figures of the time.
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It is renowned for its innovative style and its celebration of the individual and the collective.
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It challenges traditional Cartesian dualism by emphasizing the embodied nature of experience.
The book explores how our perception of the world is shaped by our physical bodies and their interaction with the environment.
Merleau-Ponty's ideas have had a profound impact on various fields, including philosophy, psychology, and art.
His work continues to inspire new interpretations and applications in contemporary thought.
The book's central theme is the inseparability of mind and body in the process of perception.
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He compares Christianity with other worldviews, highlighting its unique ability to balance paradoxes and provide a coherent explanation of human nature and the world.
Chesterton's writing is characterized by his wit, humor, and profound insights, making the book both intellectually stimulating and engagingly readable.
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Eckhart's vocabulary and concerns have been compared to later philosophical themes, and Cyril Welch notes resonances between Eckhart's language and Heidegger's concepts.
His sermons have been studied both for their religious import and their philosophical implications, especially in discussions of mysticism, metaphysics, and the history of ideas.
Translations and scholarly editions make these medieval texts accessible to contemporary readers.
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The essay delves into the nature of anxiety (angst) as a fundamental mood that brings us face to face with nothingness.
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Go Down, Moses
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Being and time
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Heidegger introduces key concepts such as 'Dasein', 'Being-with', and the three temporal ecstases (having-been, present, and to-come), emphasizing that Dasein's existence is essentially futural and characterized by its possibilities and projects.
The work challenges traditional philosophical notions of subject and object, instead positing that Dasein is inseparable from its world and historical context.
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It features the allegory of the cave, a powerful metaphor for the limitations of human perception and the pursuit of knowledge.
The dialogue delves into various forms of government, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, ultimately advocating for a philosopher-king to rule the ideal state.
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Narrated by Ishmael, the story follows the crew of the whaling ship Pequod as they embark on a journey that explores themes of obsession, man vs.
nature, and the existential questions of good and evil.
The novel is rich in detailed descriptions of whale hunting and life aboard a culturally diverse crew, and it has become a cornerstone of American and world literature.
A full century ago, a young and relatively unknown philosophy instructor in a small town in Germany would publish a book that would be swiftly picked up and radically reshape the intellectual landscape around it. Everything published before could now be reread in a new light, while everything after would often be seen as a sort of development in response to this book. Its author was Martin Heidegger, and the book was his Being and Time (Yale UP, 2026), one of the most important and influential works in the history of philosophy. Due to the difficulty of the text, filled with dense neologisms or unconventional uses of common terms, Heidegger’s work has proven a consistent challenge for any translator trying to render him in English. The first attempt was by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson in 1962, with a repeated attempt by one of Heidegger’s students, Joan Stambaugh, arriving in 1995, with revisions by Dennis Schmidt in 2010. Now in 2026, Cyril Welch has brought his own translation to publication. Initial work began several decades ago in his classroom where he was trying to teach the text, and so he started offering up his own translations of key passages for his students. Over time these translations were revised and added to until eventually he found he had enough to consider formal publication. The publication was held back for some time, but now is finally able to come to light, giving both seasoned and fresh readers of Heidegger a chance to read his work anew.
Cyril Welch is professor emeritus of philosophy at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada.
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