This volume comprises the lecture course that Heidegger gave in 1941 on the metaphysics of German Idealism. The first part of the lecture course contains a preliminary consideration of the distinction between ground and existence. The elucidation of the conceptual history includes a striking confrontation with Kierkegaard-s and Jaspers- concepts of existence, as well as an elucidation of the concept of existence in Being and Time, which Heidegger distinguishes from the former concepts. Heidegger-s self-interpretation is not an end in itself, however, but rather a way of pointing to Schelling-s distinction between ground and existence, whose root and inner necessity and whose various versions Heidegger discusses subsequently.
The second part of the lecture course is focused on Schelling-s -freedom treatise,- which Heidegger regards as the pinnacle of the metaphysics of German Idealism. Heidegger-s consideration of Schelling-s distinction between ground and existence find
