Being and time german sein und zeit is the 1927 magnum opus of german philosopher martin heidegger and a key document of existentialism being and time had a notable impact on subsequent philosophy literary theory and many other fields its controversial stature in intellectual history has been favorably compared with several works by kant and hegel. Heidegger begins by distinguishing the verb to be blue be a man be the sense of existence and the name a human being a living being to avoid any confusion heidegger uses the word to be that talk of being and for substances he introduced the concept of being we must therefore say being is. Overview being and time sein und zeit is a philosophical text written by 20th century german philosopher martin heidegger in it heidegger attempts to address the fundamental question of the meaning of being he does so through a systematic exploration of human existence and its structures. Martin heideggers being and time a summary philosophy lost its way a long fucking time ago they treat being like some trivial thing instead of the most important fucking question of our time the one that matters most of all what does it mean to be