"A Prolific, Provincial Nazi Hack."
No, not this one.
This one.
"How many scholarly stakes in the heart will we need before Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), still regarded by some as Germany's greatest 20th-century philosopher, reaches his final resting place as a prolific, provincial Nazi hack? Overrated in his prime, bizarrely venerated by acolytes even now, the pretentious old Black Forest babbler makes one wonder whether there's a university-press equivalent of wolfsbane, guaranteed to keep philosophical frauds at a distance."
This one.
"How many scholarly stakes in the heart will we need before Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), still regarded by some as Germany's greatest 20th-century philosopher, reaches his final resting place as a prolific, provincial Nazi hack? Overrated in his prime, bizarrely venerated by acolytes even now, the pretentious old Black Forest babbler makes one wonder whether there's a university-press equivalent of wolfsbane, guaranteed to keep philosophical frauds at a distance."
Can't be said enough.
posted by Terry Glavin at 5:50 PM
5 Comments:
What do you think of this reply?
http://bit.ly/2gcNLw
I should add that I don't know nearly enough about Heidegger to have a dog in this fight.
Fair enough as it goes, I guess, but to point out the lurid features of Heidegger and his ideas is necessary. Every few years, someone does this and causes an unholy rumpus, and a common responses is "I never thought the answer to illiberalism was more illiberalism," when that is not what is at stake here at all.
Heidegger was scum, and his ideas, whatever their few merits, are dangerously scummy.
Can't be said enough.
So if Faye (via Romano) is right and Heidegger's "philosophy grew out of his Nazism, forcing us to see it as a kind of philosophical propaganda for Nazism in a different key", does this mean that Emmanuel Levinas's ethical philosophy is unwittingly shot through with Nazism? What about Paul Celan's poetry?
Seems unlikely.
I invite you to read my recently posted blog "The 'Leap'" at http://beyondheidegger.blogspot.com. It might clear a few things up for you, add to any confusion you may have, or you think you may not have any time to read it. Read it anyway, I think you will enjoy it.
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