The Politics of Being (Paperback)

by Professor Richard Wolin (Author) "In the passionate debate that has raged over the course of the last several years concerning the National Socialist convictions of the German philosopher Martin..." (more)
Key Phrases: conservative revolutionary critique, bourgeois normalcy, authentic temporality, National Socialism, National Socialist, Rectoral Address (more...)

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Review
In what may be the best available study of Heidegger's relation to Nazism, Wolin demonstrates that . . . Heidegger's thought was inextricably combined with his decision to support the Nazis. -- Dissent

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-- Dissent

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Product Details

• Paperback: 221 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (April 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231073151
• ISBN-13: 978-0231073158
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,041,888 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Detailed but mislead and unproductive, May 22, 2004

By	Zophorian - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Politics of Being: The Political Thought of Martin Heidegger (Hardcover)

Wolin is interpreting Heidegger to show how his philosophy can be used by or sympathetic to the Nazi movement. He is by no means simply analizing Hiedegger's thought. This is an interesting critical approach to Heidegger's thought, because he does have tendencies that can be interpreted as dictatorial and nationalistic. However Heidegger also has tendencies of pluralism and ultra-democracy. To be critical of his tendencies towards dictatorship and nationalism is a valuable project, especially since he seems to lean in these direction as opposition to technocracy, globalization, specialization. This, and may of the Americans who write on this, is not a productive approach to the problem. His critique seems to mask an attack on Heidegger's thought as well as all those who have come after him in the continental tradition. It is not truly critique, it is witch hunting. The tone betrays his overall dislike and attack on European late modernists and post-modernism. Derrida criticizes Wolin saying that it appears that he has never read most of Heidegger's works. The meaning of this comment is not that Wolin has never read Heidegger, but that he read him in order to interpret Heidegger as a Nazi and then dismiss him and all of his successors. For Derrida reading is either to think the thoughts as the writer thought them or to interpret the writing in a productive way- both are deep reading practices. Wolin does neither as he deal with Heidegger.