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Heidegger and the Ideology of War

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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.

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.