The Politics of Being: The Political Thought of Martin Heidegger, with a new preface

Richard Wolin’s __The Politics of Being__ has played a seminal role in the international debate over the consequences of Heidegger’s Nazism. In this edition, Wolin provides a new preface addressing the effect of the __Black Notebooks__ on our understanding of the relationship between politics and philosophy in Heidegger’s work For over fifty years the philosophical achievements of Martin Heidegger have been haunted by a devilʼs bargain struck between the philosopher and the National Socialist movement in the early 1930s-an alliance that Heidegger himself never explicitly renounced. The Politics of Being: the Political Thought of Martin Heidegger by Richard Wolin reconstructs the delicate interrelationship between philosophy and politics and the way in which Heideggerʼs failure as a political actor influenced the recasting of his philosophy in the 1930s and 1940s. Beginning with Heideggerʼs Being and Time, Wolin argues that the philosopherʼs decision for national Socialism cannot be understood apart form the most fundamental conditions of his philosophy. Thus, Heideggerʼs involvement with National Socialism was rooted in the innermost tendencies of his thought. And although Wolin denies that Heideggerʼs Nazism was a necessary outgrowth of Being and Time, he does suggest that the politics of the Nazi movement satisfied ideal of authentic historical commitment outlined in Heideggerʼs 1927 work. Wolin then explains how Heideggerʼs failure in politics influenced the content and direction of his later philosophy. The author asserts that the major themes of Heideggerʼs later work-the quasi-apocalyptical indictments of humanism, technology and European nihilism-must be understood, to a degree, as an exercise in self-criticism. In The Politics of Being, Wolin cautions those who wish to seize on Heideggerʼs unsavory political allegiances as a pretext for disqualifying his philosophy as a whole. At the same time, he demonstrates convincingly that insofar as Heideggerʼs political choices are rooted in his philosophy, this fact cannot help but discredit some of the most essential features of Heideggerʼs philosophical project. Includes information on antihumanism, conservative revolutionary thought, the destining of Being, Question of Being, historicity, Adolf Hitler, Holocaust, Ernst Junger, metaphysics, Friedrich Nietzsche, Plato and Platonism, Otto Poggeler, etc. Martin Heidegger's ties to Nazism have tarnished his stature as one of the towering figures of twentieth-century philosophy. With the publication of Heidegger's Black Notebooks, which reveal the full extent of Heidegger's anti-Semitism as well as his enduring sympathy for National Socialism, the controversy has reemerged in full force. When first published during the 1990s, Richard Wolin's The Politics of Being: The Political Thought of Martin Heidegger played a seminal role in the voluble debates that ensued over the intellectual consequences of Heidegger's Nazism. In this expanded edition, Wolin provides a substantial new preface that addresses the question of how the Black Notebooks' publication affects our understanding of the relationship between politics and philosophy in Heidegger's work. Building on his path-breaking, earlier interpretation of Heidegger's political thought, . Wolin demonstrates convincingly that philosophy and politics cannot be disentangled in Heidegger's oeuvre, insofar as. vOlkisch ideological themes suffuse even his most sublime philosophical treatises. Thus despite Heidegger's profundity as a thinker, his critique of civilization is saturated with disturbing anti-democratic and anti-Semitic leitmotifs and claims CONTENTS PREFACE TO THE 2016 EDITION PREFACE ONE. Heidegger and Politics TWO. Being and Time as Po liti cal Philosophy Between Philosophy and World- View The “Historicity” of Being and Time Authenticity and Decision The Call of Conscience A Self- Canceling Social Ontology; The Aporias of “Decisiveness” “Destiny” or the Incorporation of Dasein Within a Historical Community THREE. “To Lead the Leader”: Philosophy in the Ser vice of National Socialism Essential Affl iction and the Impoverishment of Bourgeois Normalcy From “Active Nihilism” to “Total Mobilization” The Rektoratsrede or “The Glory and Greatness of the National Awakening” FOUR. “The Inner Truth and Greatness of National Socialism” A Politics of Authenticity The Ontological Vocation of Art The State as “Work for the Works” The Equiprimordiality of Truth and Error A Spiritual Aristocracy of Leader- Creators; Violence as an Ontological Imperative FIVE. Technology, Antihumanism, and the Eclipse of Practical Reason Rethinking Nietzsche Seinsgeschick as a Strategy of Denial A Philosophy of Heteronomy The “Leveling Gaze” of Heidegger’s Later Philosophy NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX Martin Heidegger's ties to Nazism have tarnished his stature as one of the towering figures of twentieth-century philosophy. The publication of the Black Notebook s in 2014, which revealed the full extent of Heidegger's anti-Semitism and enduring sympathy for National Socialism, only inflamed the controversy. Richard Wolin's The Politics of Being: The Political Thought of Martin Heidegger has played a seminal role in the international debate over the consequences of Heidegger's Nazism. In this edition, the author provides a new preface addressing the effect of the Black Notebooks on our understanding of the relationship between politics and philosophy in Heidegger's work. Building on his pathbreaking interpretation of the philosopher's political thought, Wolin demonstrates that philosophy and politics cannot be disentangled in Heidegger's oeuvre. Völkisch ideological themes suffuse even his most sublime philosophical treatises. Therefore, despite Heidegger's profundity as a thinker, his critique of civilization is saturated with disturbing anti-democratic and anti-Semitic leitmotifs and claims. Studies the politics of Heidegger in terms of "thrownness" or "existential contingency". Attempts to think through Heidegger's philosophy in a manner that parallels his own dialogue with other key western thinkers