Heidegger and the Ideology of War [Hardcover]

Domenico Losurdo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2001

Domenico Losurdo reconstructs the genesis of Heidegger's philosophy in its historical context, analysing the meaning and characteristics of the peculiar 'ideology of war' developed in Germany at the outset of the First World War. In the 20th century, conflicts between states took the form for the first time of total war requiring the mobilisation of an entire society. This all-pervasive ideological mobilisation of consciences was associated at the purely military and industrial level in a form never seen before. On the one hand, among the allied nations the ideology of war centred on the principle of 'democratic intervention', the Wilsonian idea of a holy crusade able to subvert the eternally militarist and autocratic Germany and, in this way, favour a kind of great 'international democratic revolution.' On the other hand, in a spiral of radicalisation, the German ideology of war characterised the looming conflict as a great clash between irreconcilable civilisations, faiths, world-visions, and even races. Germans affirmed not only the superiority of their culture over the enemy countries, but above all the hypothesis of a political and social model that expelled from modernity every universalistic concept of emancipation and democratisation. Moving within this milieu, Heidegger's philosophy contested the cultural decadence and 'massification' reigning in Western industrial society. In a sharp confrontation with the entire philosophical tradition starting from ancient Greece, he finally condemned the conceptual basis that is the foundation of the modern world as a form of degenerated Platonism in which liberal, revolutionary, and Marxist ideas, and even Nietzsche's philosophy, were involved. Contrary to the majority of interpreters of Heidegger's philosophy, Losurdo reconstructs Heidegger's political dimension and shows the influence of historical and social forces on the development of his ideas.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Losurdo has provided an additional and valuable element that must be incorporated into this discussion." -- The Journal of Value Inquiry 37, 2003

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Humanity Books (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573929107
• ISBN-13: 978-1573929103
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,919,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heidegger and the Kriegsideologie., October 21, 2002

By 

New Age of Barbarism "zosimos" (EVROPA.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heidegger and the Ideology of War (Hardcover)

This book examines the thought of such thinkers as Karl Jaspers, Oswald Spengler, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ernst Junger, Carl Schmitt, Thomas Mann, Max Weber, and in particular the philosophical thinking of Martin Heidegger and traces the development of their thought as it relates to the German ideology of war that developed after the First World War. Praise of the battlefield, "the socialism of war", and the resultant reaction to technology and modernity play their unique roles in the transformation of the West during this period of crisis in Germany. These forms of reactionary modernism, and nostalgic heroism are precursors to the rise of the Third Reich to power and the subsequent World War which follows that rise to power. In particular, the author emphasizes how Heidegger's thinking is in line with this ideology of war and how his subsequent (though brief) alignment with the Nazi regime plays into his philosophical thought. The decline of the West, the superiority of the Germanic peoples, the negation of the "universal man" of Revolutionary rhetoric, the "Judaic-Bolshevik conspiracy", and the ideologies of "Blood and Soil" and "reactionary modernism" are discussed by the author Losurdo as they relate to the unique philosophical grounding of the various thinkers above. In particular, the thought of Max Weber and Karl Jaspers is shown to have fallen into the same ideological framework despite the fact that they would not openly sympathize with the Nazi regime. This book is an important work for understanding the type of thinking that underlay the German experience before the Second World War, the philosophical basis of this thinking, and the roots of the ideology of war. In particular, the thought of Martin Heidegger is examined and exposed as profoundly opposed to modernism and liberalism. The exaltation of the European and the contrast between German Reich, Roman Imperium, and Hellenic Polis are expounded upon throughout. The guilt experienced by the German nation subsequent to its defeat in the World War and the collapse of the Nazi Third Reich and a proper assessment of Martin Heidegger's unique philosophical thinking in relationship to this guilt is a problem which continues to plague students of this great philosopher's thought. This book is important for what it has to say about that thought, for its understanding of these European thinkers and their inter-relationships, and for the role of the ideology of war played in each of their thought.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kultur vs Zivilization?, September 18, 2002

By 

John C. Landon "nemonemini" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heidegger and the Ideology of War (Hardcover)

Doing justice to Heidegger can be difficult, but this book would not be rough justice, as it zooms into the context of the World War as this produced not just a war but the mobilization of ideologies. Here the fate of the classic discourse of culture and civilization seems funerary, at best. But it is a sophisticated philosophical funeral. 'War fever' is a simpler term for the psychology. The tragic irony of the reversal of the terms 'culture' and 'civilization', in all the Splengerian idiocies of 'culture as tough talk' given the original moral intent of the distinction, is transparent, yet a enigma in a philosopher such as Heidegger who describes this reification even as he succumbs to it. This book provides an important snapshot for anyone textually focussed wishing to desmerize, where the plight of metaphysical profundity turning into the quagmire de profundis. Oswald Spengler seems better adapted to these lurid falls. But the evidence speaks for itself.