[Pen-l] Heidegger and Nazism [was: Exchange on I.F. Stone

["Jim Devine" <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

Again, I don't know much (if anything) about H, but let's look at
things from a philosophical point of view, i.e., not trying to blame H
the person but to gain understanding about his philosophy. If one
takes any Nazi-related components of his philosophy out of his oeuvre,
does it weaken or strengthen his philosophical perspective, making it
less or more coherent? (it can still be wrong if it's coherent, i.e.,
internally consistent.) If it strengthens his philosophy, that's a
point in his favor.

BTW, I can't think of any better basis for calling H a "Nazi" than
noting that he was a card-carrying member. Just having "some sympathy"
for the Nazis does not make one a Nazi, just as having "some sympathy"
for the CPUSA during the 1930s does not make one a Stalinist. "Some
sympathy" can be mixed with antagonism (while the CPUSA sometimes is
accurate in their positions). But one chooses to join a party. H
didn't have to join, unless he was blackmailed or extorted -- or was
just a coward.

On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 9:03 PM, ravi <ravi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Nov 20, 2008, at 10:51 PM, Jim Devine wrote:
>>
>> Louis Proyect quotes:
>>>>
>>>> Martin Heidegger, who not only welcomed the Nazi Party's rise to power,
>>>> but remained a proud member of the Nazi Party until the end of the war.
>>
>> ravi wrote:
>>>
>>> Well played! A smear by association, in response to another!
>>
>> are you saying that Heidegger wasn't a Nazi?
>
>
>
> I am saying that calling Heidegger a Nazi, which is essentially an attempt
> to tie him to mass murder of Romas, homosexuals and Jews, is the rough
> equivalent (if technically more accurate) of calling someone a Stalinist
> because he had some sympathy with the CPUSA at some point. Yes, Heidegger
> was a card-carrying member of the party, and even gave a few positive
> speeches about national socialism and the "Führer" but IMHO these were
> motivated by his esoteric hopes and dreams of German nationalism and
> revivalism, as also his somewhat cowardly ambitions and impatient
> authoritarianism (ironically, the quote that the WSWS offers, from as early
> as mid-1934, in their attempt to damn the man, illustrates the true nature
> of Heidegger's involvement with national socialism and his ignorant attempt
> to tie the movement into his own philosophies: "The stuff which is now being
> bandied about as the philosophy of National Socialism—but which has not the
> least to do with the inner truth and greatness of this movement (namely the
> encounter between global technology and modern man)—is casting its net in
> these troubled waters of 'values' and 'totalities'."). He spent a year or so
> as a rector at Freiburg (which ended, IIRC, 1935), by some accounts
> discriminating against Jews, by other accounts sheltering some of them, but
> there is enough reason to believe his attitude bordered on anti-semitism.
> After the war, he kept mum and when his big mysterious explication was
> finally published in the later half of the 20th century, it was mostly more
> self-extrication. None of that adds up to or justifies the knee-jerk
> response that Western readers are conditioned to exhibit when they hear the
> word "Nazi".
>
>        --ravi
>
> --
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-- 
Jim Devine /  "Nobody told me there'd be days like these / Strange
days indeed -- most peculiar, mama." -- JL.
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