Being and Time Heidegger's "description of the world of phenomena" to be "fascinating, but maddeningly abstract". He suggests that much of "Being and Time" is a "description of a private spiritual journey" rather than genuine philosophy, and notes that Heidegger's assertions are unsupported by argument. Stephen Houlgate compares Heidegger's achievements in "Being and Time" to those of Kant in the "Critique of Pure Reason" (1781) and Hegel in "The Phenomenology of Spirit" (1807) and "Science of Logic" (1812-1816). Simon Critchley calls the work Heidegger's "magnum opus", and writes that it is impossible to understand developments in continental philosophy after Heidegger without understanding it.
Philosopher king model and ideas of the philosopher-king as described in "The Republic". Ayatollah Khomeini is said to have been inspired by the Platonic vision of the philosopher king while in Qum in the 1920s when he became interested in Islamic mysticism and Plato's Republic. As such, it has been speculated that he was inspired by Plato's philosopher king, and subsequently based elements of his Islamic republic on it, despite it being a republic which deposed the former Pahlavi dynasty. Karl Popper blamed Plato for the rise of totalitarianism in the 20th century, seeing Plato's philosopher kings, with their dreams of 'social