RE: heidegger and greek

On Mon, 26 Feb 1996, Iain Thomson wrote:

I am glad you bear me no ill-will because I meant none. If I was more
than usually argumentative, it was because I was astount you would
connect historicity and metaphysics as you use the term. I was incorrect
in my reading. We agree that historicity opposes the possibility of
metaphysics as you understand the term.

I can even pinpoint where I was mistaken. At the end of your latest
post, you said that Heidegger's Nazi entanglement was an attempt to
fortify a non-nihilistic culture against the relentless onslaught of
historicity. I understood you to be saying that Heidegger got involved
with the Nazis on the basis of historicity and not against it. I think,
though, you can understand why. Loewith understood the connection
positively; so do most people. Particularly when we think to the
connection you rightly point out between historicity and Nietzsche's
Second Meditation, which is to say, great (non-nihilistic) culture arises
only out of authentic historicity.

> I did find interesting your claim that the 'thousand year Reich' in
> fact testified to the Nazi's implicit recognition of their own
> impermanence; but do you really believe that? It seems much more likely to
> me at least that the ambition evidenced by the 'thousand-year Reich'
> testifies to a desire for maximal permanence of presence! What political
> system has ever lasted a thousand years? (You are certainly right to
> counterpose the Reich and Marx's 'utopian' vision, but does the mere fact
> that Marx thought the communist state would eventually become permanent
> grant to the 'thousand-year Reich' a recognition of its own impermanence?)

The question is not what I believe, but what Heidegger believed (and
could legitimately think in 1933). 1000 years is indeed a long time, but
it is not permanence. Keep in mind the motto that stands at the head of
the Nietzsche volumes: "2000 years and no new god." Given that time
frame, 1000 years seems positively short. Anyway, length of time is not
the issue. Recognition of one's own end is. And the standard is not
political regimes but "gods," (values, arche). Whether it is the liberal
belief in the infinite progression of technology, the marxist/hegelian
end of history and withering away of the state, or a Christian kingdom of
God, these major modern alternatives all believe in the end of history,
which means, the perpetuation into infinity of the present. National
Socialism appears to be the only alternative. Now by "National
Socialism" I mean here Heidegger's version of it, which was always at
odds with the biological grounding of the real version precisely because
the Nazis' biologism was anti-historical, i.e., permanent.

The trick in explaining Heidegger's Nazism is to explain why he joined,
why he left, and why after he left he held to a "true" National Socialism
that was at odds with the actual party which had betrayed it's true
possibilities. The last point implies either an incredible stubborness
and refusal to admit one's failure, or, as I think, it implies a unity of
thinking which underlies the whole. The reason I like my theory is that
it can explain all three points. He joined because he thought National
Socialism constituted a recognition of a new metaphysics, he left when it
became apparent that it wasn't (its biologism was yet another form of the
predominate metaphysics), and it can explain the distinction Heidegger
raises between authentic National Socialism and the stupid party.

> One could only think this, it seems to me, if one believes that 1.
> Heidegger didn't abandon his metaphysial ambitions after the Nazi debacle
> and 2. that in the 'thousand-year Reich' Heidegger recognized and approved
> of this Reich's commitment to its own IMpermance. An ingenious
> interpretation, but one which needs to explicitly address my claim that
> Heidegger's commitment to National Socialism seemed to be an attempt on his
> part to build a dam in the stream of time, to fortify a non-nihilistic
> national cultural position against the relentless onslaught of historicity!
> (And that he learned a great deal from this failure, abandoned
> metaphysics, embraced historicity, etc.)

Two quick last points. A non-nihilistic culture is possible only on the
basis of historicity. On this point Heidegger is quite consistent.
Secondly, by metaphysics I follow the earlier Heidegger: metaphysics is
the questioning of being. Heidegger never abandoned that. Anyway, I
still maintain that Heidegger never abandoned metaphysics as you
understand it because he never held to it in the first place (again, with
the caveat "at least after 1919").

Chris


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