Customer Reviews

Heidegger's Roots: Nietzsche, National Socialism, and the Greeks

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Martin Heidegger was a member of the Nazi party for one year. This much is fact. It raises an essential question, however: are we ever able, as modern scholars, to divorce great thinkers from the historical/social context in which they lived? Or, perhaps more profoundly, are we really able to divorce ourselves from the historical/social context in which we live and thrive?

Naturally, we would all like to believe that it is possible to read great philosophers, as well as our own thoughts and concerns, independently of the social milieu into which they (or we) are born. Yet, to what extent is this project really possible?

After reading Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics, I honestly felt that, in line with Richard Rorty, we could, as modern students of philosophy, effectively pick and chose elements of Heidegger to use as philosophical tools in our postmodern academic readings of great thinkers.

Reading this phenomenal text by Charles Bambach, however, I realized how problematic that somewhat naive venture can be. Indeed, Heidegger himself, in Being and Time, seems to cast the individual as a creation of her/his historical unfolding, all but conflating ethics and self-hood with normative community standards.

To carry out his own project, i.e., placing Heidegger into his proper historical/political context, Bambach focuses on the "when" specific texts were written, those from 1933-1945 - obviously a time of chaotic social upheaval in Germany. Here, Bambach articulates a "singular metaphysics of the earth marked by autochthony" within Heidegger's thinking, a "philosophical geo-politics" if you will, based on the German notion of Volk, or a "rootedness of the homeland and ancestral kinship." (p. 10)

Yet, don't let his high-minded project scare you off: what I liked best about the text was its sheer "readability," or accessibility. Despite its somewhat dogmatic flare - say, in the preface, where he equates ecological concerns with conservative, right wing movements - the text flows easily and Bambach wins over most readers. For example, Bambach begins his work with a description of Heidegger's hut as symbolic of the philosopher's overall thinking and self-projected image.

Basically, this book is a gem. I recommended for anyone interested in philosophy or history. It really is THAT good!