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Heidegger’s Being and Time and National Socialism

2012; DePaul University; Volume: 56; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5840/philtoday201256310

2329-8596

Johannes Fritsche,

Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Hegel

In fall issue of 2011, Philosophy Today published an open letter from Gregory Fried to Emmanuel Faye along with Faye's response.1 At stake was Heidegger's Nazism and therefore also, if not primarily, his chef-d'oeuvre, Being and Time. Faye refers to my book (Historical Destiny and National Socialism in Heidegger's Being and Time) as one of two great studies and classics that have recognized the volkisch significance of of Being and Time? Simon Critchley similarly acknowledges that I have shown the systematic connection between fundamental ontology and national socialism ... in extraordinary scholarly detail.3 My book, however, was published already in last millennium and it was misrepresented in reviews.4 In addition, I have done some further work on issue. Thus I would like to present a synopsis of my interpretation in my book and papers, beginning with a summary of my interpretation of content of §74, crucial section of chapter on historicality (in Stambaugh's translation, historicity) (Geschichtlichkeif). Since §74 does not come out of blue but rather is culmination of entire book, I want to show next how Being and Time as a whole leads up to §74. For this purpose I shall first present structure of Being and Time and a common feature of all of Heidegger's discussions of different existentials in Division One, and then discuss issues of death, conscience, and temporality of existentials in Division Two before returning, in next section, to §74 for a summary of my interpretation of its decisive sentences. In last two sections, I shall present as confirmations of my interpretation career of concept of historicality after Being and Time and an example of Heidegger's usage of his concept of death from Being and Time after Hitler's seizure of power.5 The Drama of Historicality in §74 of Being and Time A severe shortcoming of most, if notali, of literature on question of political aspects of Being and Time, in my view, is that not only Heidegger's defenders but also his critics limit their analysis to Being and Time, without comparing it with contemporaneous texts. In first decades of twentieth century, there were in Germany three major political trends, namely, liberals, leftists, and rightists. Liberals and leftists shared idea of progress according to which development of capitalist economy would liberate humans from confinements of pre-capitalist societies. They differed in that liberals claimed that capitalism and parliamentary democracy was end of history while leftists did not think so. Social democrats agreed regarding parliamentary democracy but held that capitalist economy had to be completed by institutions of social welfare. Communists, on contrary, anticipated a revolution through which capitalism would be replaced with a socialist or communist society. While for liberals and leftists universal reason or forces of production ruled human history, for rightists God, providence (Vorsehung), and destiny (Geschick) or fate (Schicksal) did so, and they saw an antagonism between society and community. Rightists regarded universal reason as a mere cover for egotism and as a leveling force that suppressed individual or regional differences and positive emotions. Society was nothing but contractual and artificial product of individuals as persons, concerned only about their egoistic advantages and treating everything and everyone else as mere means. By contrast, community preceded individuals and enabled them to develop and entertain commitment, trust, love, etc. toward community and its members. In addition, equality proclaimed by Enlightenment, liberalism, and leftism ignored essential features of human life, namely, hierarchy and authority. In view of rightists, society destroyed community, and social democracy and communism were merely intensifications of egotism and ungodliness of liberalism, a downward plunge that would end in chaos and anarchy. …