The publication of Martin Heidegger's magnum opus, Being and Time, in 1927 signaled an intellectual event of the first order and had an impact in fields far beyond that of philosophy proper. Among the most complex and original analyses of the character of philosophic inquiry and the relation of the possibility of such inquiry to the human situation, Being and Time has long been recognized as a landmark work of the twentieth century. Still provocative and much disputed, Heidegger's text has been taken as the inspiration for a variety of innovative movements in fields ranging from psychoanalysis, literary theory, existentialism, ethics, hermeneutics, and theology. A work that disturbs the traditions of philosophizing that it inherits, Being and Time raises questions about the end of philosophy and the possibilities for thinking liberated from the presumptions of metaphysics.

This new translation by Joan Stambaugh, one of Heidegger's students and leading interpreters, takes account of English-language Heidegger research since the first translation of Being and Time in 1962. The Stambaugh translation captures the vital relation to language that animates Heidegger's original text. Through this translation elements of Being and Time that were not so clearly evident hitherto should become more apparent to readers of the English text. The new translation of key notions here should serve as the standard for Heidegger studies to come.