Hi Jud, you wrote:
>History tells us he was certainly a *university brute* though.
Jud, the 'Academia' is a snake pit, always was and always will be.
Especially among professors, but also among the academical
proletariat, there has always been fierce rivalry, nasty backbiting,
malicious gossip and worse. What Heidegger did to Husserl and
others (and what others did to him) was nothing special, it is of
all times and all ages, these are the laws of the academical jungle,
and it has nothing to do with Heidegger's alleged dubious character
or the treacherous Nazi-regime.
>With all due respects to your dear father Jan, we are not talking about
>Heidegger's activities DURING the war, a war it can be argued that
>Heidegger helped bring about as a result of his political involvement
>with Hitler.
But if you stretch this line of argument then everybody, who was in
some way or another politically involved with Hitler, would be guilty
of bringing about the war, and this would then imply Britain, France,
Holland, Russia etc. too as Rene has argued so many times here.
>It was the period during the establishment of the *war party* when
>he offered and provided his influential backing by running here, there
>>and everywhere propagandising and organising.
Heidegger was in no way an influential personality in those days (and
if he ever was later, i doubt that too). He certainly was a *rising star*
at the philosophical firmament and the Nazi-regime cleverly used him
in that capacity, but he never became or was a party-ideologue in any
true sense; no that role was far better played by figures as Rosenberg,
Krieck or Baeumler.
>There was no *rush* then - certainly not the kind of frenetic haste as
>far as decision-making was concerned. He sat quietly in his study,
>reckoned that the men in jackboots was his best bet - and went for it.
I was not thinking about Heidegger personally rushing and speeding
around from here to there and everywhere; no, what i meant to say
was the speed of the actuality of societal and political life in general
(in the sense of Virillo's dromology). The turmoil and revolutionay,
sometimes messianic, spirit that raged through all western societies
after the crash of 1928 and the following deep depression, created a
political vector with immense instability, nobody wanted to look back
or even dared to step back and take a pause to think things over, afraid
that somebody else would take the lead and leave you behind. Of what
my father told me, those years were insanely hectic: everyday there was
world-breaking-news, political figures went as quick as they came, as
was with hope and dispair, what you believed in today was dangerous
tomorrow.
Remains the question if Heidegger should have apologized openly and
publicly for his involvement with the Nazi-regime ? It certainly would
have been a "grand gesture" if he had done it, but he didn't. He took an
other way. He took the road of self-punishment by imprisoning himself
in his mountain cabine; a very Lutheran and pietistic choice, i think. He
locked himself up far away from the world, a world in which he could
have easely become a world celebrated philosopher with many students
flocking around from allover the world.
yours,
Jan
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>History tells us he was certainly a *university brute* though.
Jud, the 'Academia' is a snake pit, always was and always will be.
Especially among professors, but also among the academical
proletariat, there has always been fierce rivalry, nasty backbiting,
malicious gossip and worse. What Heidegger did to Husserl and
others (and what others did to him) was nothing special, it is of
all times and all ages, these are the laws of the academical jungle,
and it has nothing to do with Heidegger's alleged dubious character
or the treacherous Nazi-regime.
>With all due respects to your dear father Jan, we are not talking about
>Heidegger's activities DURING the war, a war it can be argued that
>Heidegger helped bring about as a result of his political involvement
>with Hitler.
But if you stretch this line of argument then everybody, who was in
some way or another politically involved with Hitler, would be guilty
of bringing about the war, and this would then imply Britain, France,
Holland, Russia etc. too as Rene has argued so many times here.
>It was the period during the establishment of the *war party* when
>he offered and provided his influential backing by running here, there
>>and everywhere propagandising and organising.
Heidegger was in no way an influential personality in those days (and
if he ever was later, i doubt that too). He certainly was a *rising star*
at the philosophical firmament and the Nazi-regime cleverly used him
in that capacity, but he never became or was a party-ideologue in any
true sense; no that role was far better played by figures as Rosenberg,
Krieck or Baeumler.
>There was no *rush* then - certainly not the kind of frenetic haste as
>far as decision-making was concerned. He sat quietly in his study,
>reckoned that the men in jackboots was his best bet - and went for it.
I was not thinking about Heidegger personally rushing and speeding
around from here to there and everywhere; no, what i meant to say
was the speed of the actuality of societal and political life in general
(in the sense of Virillo's dromology). The turmoil and revolutionay,
sometimes messianic, spirit that raged through all western societies
after the crash of 1928 and the following deep depression, created a
political vector with immense instability, nobody wanted to look back
or even dared to step back and take a pause to think things over, afraid
that somebody else would take the lead and leave you behind. Of what
my father told me, those years were insanely hectic: everyday there was
world-breaking-news, political figures went as quick as they came, as
was with hope and dispair, what you believed in today was dangerous
tomorrow.
Remains the question if Heidegger should have apologized openly and
publicly for his involvement with the Nazi-regime ? It certainly would
have been a "grand gesture" if he had done it, but he didn't. He took an
other way. He took the road of self-punishment by imprisoning himself
in his mountain cabine; a very Lutheran and pietistic choice, i think. He
locked himself up far away from the world, a world in which he could
have easely become a world celebrated philosopher with many students
flocking around from allover the world.
yours,
Jan
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---