Heidegger is an original and influential thinker in the history of western philosophy. His most important work is Being and Time (1926). Because of this book, Heidegger is regarded as the developer of phenomenological school and the founder of existential philosophy. The purpose of Being and Time is to discuss the meaning of existence in detail, and his greatest concern in his life is the difference between being and being. His exploration of the meaning of existence and time, his meditation on art theory and technology, his theory of language mode, and his thorough revision of Plato, Aristotle and Kant's truth and logic mode have all influenced various theories in the contemporary west. We can call him "the questioner of existence", "the shepherd of existence" and "the poet philosopher". We can also call him an "admirer of thought", "mysterious master of thought" or "thinker in thought", or use Heidegger's own name "thinker on the way" to be an ordinary person, not just a great philosopher and thinker. Shi Yong, a book critic of the German philosopher Heidegger, once admitted that the end of existentialism is the starting point of religion. In the eyes of religious people who reach the other side, "existentialist" is a person who can neither return to the original starting point nor swim to the other side, but can only struggle in the swift river.
As the most profound humanistic thought, existentialism grasps one point: the ultimate source of human tragedy lies in his ontological tragedy-the split between being and being. It is this that makes psychoanalytic theory merge with existentialism and religion after Freud's theory. Jung, Ranke, Becker, Fromm, Ryan and other westerners who operate psychoanalytic "scalpels" all show great interest in the Zen thought that haunts the distant East.
In Heidegger's view, phenomenology is not a science, and it does not have to force itself to undertake those topics related to specialized science. Phenomenology is a primitive science, therefore, phenomenology advocates "going to the thing itself", which should be understood as putting forward such a requirement for itself, that is, asking itself to understand its origin. As far as phenomenology is concerned, life should be the so-called "thing itself". Phenomenology should not be a world view invented by human beings. In Heidegger's view, the world outlook under the scientific signboard is undoubtedly a false life, which should have been reborn through real life and its thorough and faithful implementation. Fallacy is a kind of danger, in which putting forward and entering "transcendental problems" is restricted by "scientific composition form" Heidegger called this danger "the uncritical absolutization of scientific concepts". In his view, phenomenology, which calls itself science, is seeking a kind of "direct giving". In fact, as far as phenomenology itself is concerned, this kind of "direct giving" cannot be given directly. The scientific nature of phenomenology actually obscures the surging life of reality, and all "direct giving", including the scope of phenomenology, is given first in the course of life itself in any way. Here, what philosophy seeks is no longer an absolutely certain point in Descartes' and Husserl's sense-whether it is the starting point or the end point, but a specific situation, a situation that each of us can experience, and a situation that cannot be approached with the attitude of scientific theory. In the past, scientific theoretical attitude had priority in understanding, but now it is gone, and the priority of this attitude has become a problem. Because, under this theoretical attitude, the concrete and intimate things in life have become incomprehensible. In the scientific expression, the lively and surging life is "somehow" ossified. If phenomenology is to become a real primitive science-that is, a real philosophy, it should face up to the most intimate and vivid life itself for everyone and grasp the most primitive and concrete things in life. Phenomenological reductionism, in the final analysis, is to directly face those living and concrete things, namely life itself. In Heidegger's view, phenomenology should not grasp the self, nor the so-called pure consciousness, but only life. Phenomenology's "phenomenon" and "representation" is such a life. Only life is self-revealing, self-sufficient and meaningful.
In Heidegger's critical interpretation of phenomenology, it already contains the criticism and rejection of the theoretical attitude of so-called scientific rationalization possessed by the whole western philosophical tradition. In his view, the reason why the whole western philosophy has taken so many detours and divergences in questioning the history of existence lies in adopting the wrong theoretical attitude towards the most primitive and fundamental thing "life" and forgetting it. Heidegger's pursuit of unscientific, theoretical and life-oriented philosophical foundation has become a basic attitude that he has almost always implemented in his later ideological course.