This is a biography of Martin Heidegger chronicling his rise along with the thought he honed on the way, with its debt to Heraclitus, Plato, and Kant, and its susceptibility to the conservatism that emerged out of Germany's loss in World War I. A chronicle of ideas and personal commitments and betrayals, the author combines accounts of the philosophy with the details of the loves and lapses that tripped this intellectual. It includes coverage of Heidegger's transformation into a propagandist for the National Socialist regime.