The extremely rare first edition of Heidegger’s inaugural-dissertation on ‘The Doctorate of Judgement in Psychologism: A Critical and Positive Contribution to Logic’ undertaken at the University of Freiburg under the supervision of Arthur Schneider (1876-1945).
The text is significant in terms of Heidegger’s early forays into the field philosophy, having previously primarily studied Catholic theology during his time at Freiburg, and particularly shows the influence of Heidegger’s early engagements with Edmund Husserl’s Logical Investigations (1900), which he began reading during his first semester at Freiburg.
“In 1909, the end of his secondary education, the twenty-year-old Heidegger entered the novitiate of the German Province of the Jesuits at Feldkirch, Austria, near the border with Lichtenstein, but he was dismissed after only a few weeks for reasons of health. Thereupon he entered the archdiocesan seminary at Freiburg, where the spiritual directors were also Jesuits, and simultaneously matriculated at the Albert Ludwig University in Freiburg. From the fall of 1909 through the summer of 1911, he studied theology and some philosophy until he abandoned entirely the idea of becoming a priest and left the seminary. But he continued his studies at the university with a concentration on philosophy until the summer of 1913 when at the age of 23 he completed his doctoral dissertation, The Doctrine of Judgement in Psychologism, under the directorship of Arthur Scheider” (Sheehan, ‘Heidegger’s Early Years: Fragments for a Philosophical Biography’, pp. 5-6).
‘In his thesis Heidegger proves himself to be a diligent and attentive disciple of Husserl, whose “Logical Investigations” have had a marked effect on him. With Husserl he argues against the representatives of psychologism-that is, against the attempt to explain logic through psychology. Highly esteemed philosophers, such as Theodor Lipps and Wilhelm Wundt, are critically examined by the self-assured young scholar. This discussion of psychologism compels him, for the first time, to reflect on the great problem that is later his main concern - time’ (Safranski, Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil, p. 44). The text of the original German would not be reprinted again until the 1972 collection Frühe Schriften which brought together his various student writings.
German universities have followed a longstanding practice of producing printed copies of defended Inaugural-Dissertationen and Habilitationsschriften, either privately-printed or by a commercial publisher, with prints runs of typically 50 to 150 copies produced at the author’s expense. These were then widely distributed as deposit copies for German institutions, and in some cases were also circulated internationally. Given their primary purpose as deposit copies, these publications are therefore usually well-held institutionally, but are significantly rare in commerce.
