Identity and Difference consists of English translations and the original German versions of two little-known lectures given in 1957 by Martin Heidegger, "The Principle of Identity" and "The Onto-theo-logical Constitution of Metaphysics." Both lectures discuss the difficult problem of the nature of identity in the history of metaphysics. A helpful introduction and a list of references are also provided by the translator, Joan Stambaugh.

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) spent most of his career teaching at the University of Freiburg. His most prominent works include Being and Time, Discourse on Thinking, Identity and Difference, What Is Called Thinking?, and Poetry, Language, Thought.

Joan Stambaugh is a professor emerita of philosophy at Hunter College of the City University of New York. She is the author, most recently, of The Finitude of Being, The Other Neitzsche, and The Formless Self.