Marx and Heidegger

By Gerry Stahl

This was my doctoral dissertation in philosophy at Northwestern University, defended on May 8, 1975. It considers the two most important philosophers of the modern age. I conducted this research at Heidelberg, where Heidegger’s work was continued, and at Frankfurt, where critical theory extended Marx’ thinking.

Marx countered the ideology of individualism by analyzing social structures and interpersonal interactions at different units of analysis than the individual person. Heidegger also questioned the traditional ontology of natural objects with innate attributes by proposing dynamic interactive processes of beings in their ecological context.
Today, the philosophies of Marx and Heidegger are still extremely relevant—provided one adapts them to the current socio-historical context and adjusts each to the implicit criticisms of the other.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781329856509

Gerry Stahl

Gerry Stahl's professional research is in the theory and analysis of CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning). In 2006 Stahl published "Group Cognition: Computer Support for Building Collaborative Knowledge" (MIT Press) and launched the "International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning". In 2009 he published "Studying Virtual Math Teams" (Springer), in 2013 "Translating Euclid," in 2015 a longitudinal study of math cognitive development in "Constructing Dynamic Triangles Together" (Cambridge U.), and in 2021 "Theoretical Investigations: Philosophical Foundations of Group Cognition" (Springer). All his work outside of these academic books is published for free in volumes of essays at Smashwords (or at Lulu as paperbacks at minimal printing cost). Gerry Stahl earned his BS in math and science at MIT. He earned a PhD in continental philosophy and social theory at Northwestern University, conducting his research at the Universities of Heidelberg and Frankfurt. He later earned a PhD in computer science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is now Professor Emeritus at the College of Computation and Informatics at Drexel University in Philadelphia. His website--containing all his publications, materials on CSCL and further information about his work--is at http://GerryStahl.net.