Heidegger & the political
Subtitle: dystopias
By: Miguel de Beistegui.
Series: Thinking the political
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1998
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 200
ISBN-13: 9780415130639; 9780415130646
Subjects: Heidegger, Martin, -- 1889-1976 -- Political and social views; National socialism
Other titles: Heidegger and the political.
Description: Synopsis

The legacy of Heidegger's membership in the Nazi party has consumed almost every aspect of continental philosophical thought and is in many ways the philosophical question of the twentieth century. Yet many recent books have placed Heidegger the National Socialist before Heidegger the Philosopher. Heidegger and the Political is a balanced yet incisive account of why Heidegger saw in national socialism the possibility of reawakening Germany to its lost essence, and how this resulted in a catastrophic "failure of thinking".

In an intelligent and nuanced rethinking of the Heidegger "affair", Miguel de Beistegui argues that it is Heidegger's philosophy that provides clues to his political activism. If we are to understand the absence of a systematic political philosophy in Heidegger, we must trace the thinking in his major philosophical work, Being and Time and his later writings on technology and global nihilism before we can reveal the roots of his political involvement.

Even if it was for a short time, the question remains, however, why Heidegger embraced Nazism so enthusiastically. de Beistegui asserts Heidegger's involvement was subordinated to a philosophical enterprise at retrieving power from the beginning. The revolution was to revive the origin, and politics was to become archaic; though this does not excuse Heidegger's commitment, it questions what in his thought allowed for the failure to see reality.

It is precisely Heidegger's failure of thinking that constitutes one of the most decisive philosophical events of this century.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [188]-191) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Bordering on Politics; title: Archaic Politics; title: An Old Question; title: After Politics Nihilisms Overcoming Nihilism?; title: The Free Use of the National; title: The Poet of the Poets; title: The Poet of the Germans; title: Before Politics; title: The First Interpretation (1935); title: The Second Interpretation (1942-3); title: And Into Silence . . .; title: Three Concluding Questions