"The Culmination is rich and complex and . . . fascinating." * European Journal of Philosophy * "In his rich new book, The Culmination, Robert Pippin paints an engrossing and, in my view, convincing picture of Heideggers reading of German Idealismmainly Kant and Hegel, and a bit of Schelling, who is sometimes said to be a precursor to Heidegger (Fichte is mentioned only occasionally)as the culmination of a rationalist or logicist understanding of metaphysics that started with Plato and Aristotle. In Heideggers view, in this understanding of metaphysics the question of Being, central to Heideggers own thought, is addressed solely or chiefly in terms of the question of logical or conceptual intelligibility, not in its own right." * Marginalia Review of Books * "Pippin has the rare gift of being able to translate the abstruse language of earlier philosophical eras into a contemporary idiom without oversimplification or trivialization." * The European Legacy * "An exemplarily researched, thoughtful and thought-provoking text. Pippin has the rare ability to painstakingly lead his readers to the core of a philosophical dispute without ever losing their interest. The Culmination will undoubtedly shape any future research on Heideggers take on Kant and the German idealists." * Hegel Bulletin * Can thought explain why it cares about what it thinks? Can the mind account for its own minding? Drawing on his decades of reflection on German Idealism, Pippin supports Heideggers answer: no. The implications for the history of philosophy and for its future are profound. -- Richard Polt, Xavier University The Culmination is by far the deepest and most thorough study of Heideggers reading of Hegel and its centrality to his account of the history of metaphysics. Pippin makes a compelling case that the rationalist equation of thinking and being remains a dogmatic assumption absent a more radical reflection on how meaning is disclosed in nonrational ways. If, as Pippin says, Heidegger understood the idealist tradition better than anyone before him, it would be fair to add that Pippin has appreciated Heideggers reading of that tradition more profoundly than anyone yet has." -- Taylor Carman, Barnard College With typical lucidity, Pippin executes his most extensive engagement with Heidegger to date, focusing on Heideggers insistence on the finitude of reason and its inability to do justice to the question of philosophy: the meaning of being. At the same time, The Culmination vividly illustrates how difficult it is to imagine an other beginning, where thinking is not modeled as rational knowledge but as attunement to the sources of mattering and meaningfulness. An indispensable resource for anyone concerned about the future of philosophy. -- Steven Crowell, Rice University
