The Heidegger Case: On Philosophy and Politics [Hardcover]

Tom Rockmore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 1992

The relation between Martin Heidegger's philosophical thought and his political commitment has been widely discussed in recent years, following the publication of Victor Farias's controversial study, "Heidegger and Nazism", published in this country by Temple University Press. "The Heidegger Case" is a collection of original essays, by both American and European philosophers, on issues raised by Heidegger's involvement with the Nazis. The contributors consider such matters as the relationship between Heidegger's philosophical theories and his public statements and activities, the ways in which his ideas on social and political life compare with those of other philosophers, and the role of philosophy with respect to politics. Author note: Tom Rockmore is Professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University. Joseph Margolis is Professor of Philosophy at Temple University. Professors Rockmore and Margolis edited "Heidegger and Nazism (Temple)" and wrote the Foreword.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Essays by a distinguished group of contemporary European and American philosophers--the majority of which were written especially for this publication--have been collected here to try to deal with the question of the significance of Heidegger's association with Nazism and the relation of philosophical thought to political thought. The editors--who also edited Victor Farias's Heidegger and Nazism ( LJ 12/89), which started the tremendous controversy now going on--have done a first-rate job, both in the quality of their selections and in the necessary translations. In addition, the final two essays are theirs. This is an invaluable addition to the debate.
- Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"[These] essays together form an extraordinary response, and radical but not self-righteous challenge, to Heidegger's unambiguous complicity with Hitler and Nazism...This book will provoke intense dialogue and controversy about issues which, for too long, too many philosophers have chosen either to gloss over or ignore." --Ronald E. Santoni

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 500 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (April 29, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877229074
• ISBN-13: 978-0877229070
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,475,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A large topic, considered in small doses, May 1, 2003

By 

Bruce P. Barten (Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Heidegger Case: On Philosophy and Politics (Hardcover)

These 18 selections, by 17 professors and one Research Director (in the Hegel Archives at the University of Bochum, Germany), while within the realm of thoughts "On Philosophy and Politics," offer an education in Heidegger far broader than how his unique place in philosophy and support for the NSDAP (you should know who I really mean) are now topics subject to debate. I have read far more on Nietzsche than about Heidegger, and tend to be disappointed that the thought of Nietzsche looms like an already settled metaphysics of will to power in some of these selections, but the evaluation of either individual thinker seems to require an openness to how other philosophers are making their interpretations. Since this book was published in 1992, the overwhelmingly negative consensus about Heidegger's embrace of what is German, as an inner truth about some level of greatness in his esteem, has been the major objection to anything which he thought.

As a consideration of alternatives, philosophy offers thinkers the opportunity to discuss ideas in a manner which does not commit the speaker to an absolute commitment, one way or the other. I find this particularly true of the use which this book makes of the comments of Rudolf Bultmann, who was about five years older than Heidegger, studied and taught at Marburg, and who gets mentioned in this book more often than the listings in the index:

31, 106, 128, 317, 265; Heidegger's correspondence with, 15-16.

The correspondence had not been published when this book was written. The first page listed, 31, mentions a conversation between Bultmann and Heidegger after World War II, not a time when Heidegger was open to suggestions about what other people thought he ought to do. The source of this information was a biography of Martin Heidegger by Hugo Ott, published in 1988. This book, THE HEIDEGGER CASE, also contains an article by Hugo Ott, "Biographical Bases for Heidegger's `Mentality of Disunity,' " which starts with a description by Heidegger of an inquisition, "in December 1945, when I was brought before the faculty in the inquisition's cross-examination to answer the twenty-three questions and I broke down completely, Dean Beringer of the Medical School (who had seen through the whole charade and the intentions of the accusers) came to me and simply took me away . . ." (p. 93). Ott explains that "Martin Heidegger was in need of very intensive medical care" (p. 95), which I tend to see as politically motivated, but "the medical care came from Professor Beringer himself, who was then the director of the University Psychiatric Clinic: Heidegger was placed in the sanatorium Schloss Hausbaden . . . from February to the end of May 1946. After that time, the psychotherapeutic treatment continued with Gebsattel." (p. 95). Even Archbishop Conrad Groeber was interested in his care, and sent a report to a priest in Rome. Ott is interested in the religious connection, even including a few lines in latin of famous Bible verses. "We should bear in mind the Twenty-third Psalm in discussing Heidegger." (p. 96). But Heidegger found more salvation in Luther than in the system which he considered "the essence of Catholic faith." (p. 106). Having seen the choice that Luther made, "After this, Heidegger came to be considered the Protestant who had come from Catholicism, . . . as Rudolf Bultmann wrote at the end of 1923 after participating in the St. Paul seminar that Heidegger offered following his call to Marburg." (p. 106).

The following selection, "Heidegger, Nietzsche, and Politics" by Otto Poeggeler, includes a portion of the letter from Bultmann, dated December 23, 1923, about his seminar on the ethics of St. Paul. "This time the seminar is especially instructive for me, due to the participation of our new philosopher, Heidegger, a student of Husserl. He comes from Catholicism, but is entirely Protestant. . . . The older generation is unable to participate, as its members no longer even understand the problem to which we are lending our efforts." (p. 122). Though the title for this subsection is "Decline and Destruction," the scientific advances of the century "which vastly lengthened the time of the origin of the universe," (p. 122) seemed to bring philosophy to a new consideration of time.

As an example of reading philosophy, the tenth selection, "A Comment on Heidegger's Comment on Nietzsche's Alleged Comment on Hegel's Comment on the Power of Negativity" by Leszek Kolakowski, checks out a comment in "Der Siegel" just after Heidegger's death, in which "Heidegger asserted that whoever had ears to hear knew that he had criticized the Nazi regime in his Nietzsche lectures." (p. 255). On the contrary, this selection is intended "to suggest, on one small point, that Heidegger employed his peculiar reading of Nietzsche to express--obliquely but clearly--his commitment to German imperialism." (p. 255). At this point, people who have been hearing anything about the Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago, might not be surprised that Leszek Kolakowski is listed in this book as a Professor there. The questions that are considered tend to be murky, even before Heidegger, and the philosophical attempt to come up with something positive, in spite of it all, ends with the conclusion that Heidegger "was not the only thinker whose work could have been employed for evil purposes without distortion, while at the same time it actually advanced in a seminal way the work of civilization." (p. 262).