On Tue, 26 Sep 1995, Pete Ferreira wrote:
> > To take a different line seems to me to end up =
> > with the kind of biographical butchery indulged in by people like Ott.
> >
>
> Do you know that Ott had his facts wrong, or do you feel that's
> Heidegger's Nazi past should remain buried (not that that's an
> option any longer).
Heidegger's philosophy is perhaps the most formidable achievement
in twentieth century ontology. Wherever one turns, it seems impossible
to escape from this contribution to thought. It seems that the easiest
way to avoid his work is to dismiss him as a Nazi. The real task, it
seems, is to adequately address the question (rather than dismissing it)
of Heidegger and the Nazis--as well as his subsequent silence on the
subject. Jacques Derrida, who it seems (in recent interviews) has moved
beyond his belief that he has 'outgrown the master' and has returned to
Heidegger anew. Even earlier than this, Derrida undertook to defend
Heidegger from easy dismissal in "Of Spirit."
I find it difficult to find the Nazi in Heidegger--if anybody can
show me passages in his work to change this opinion, I will entertain the
idea of changing my position, but to dismiss such a life-affirming work as
Sein und Zeit on the basis of labels and formulae is nothing more than a
dangerous 'solicitude' that "levels down" (Einebnung) to the conspiracy
of the average.
Eric.
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