Heidegger's Volk

by Phillips, James

• ISBN13: 9780804750714
• ISBN10: 0804750718
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-26
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

In 1933 the philosopher Martin Heidegger declared his allegiance to Hitler. Ever since, scholars have asked to what extent his work is implicated in Nazism. To address this question properly involves neither conflating Nazism and the continuing philosophical project that is Heidegger's legacy, nor absolving Heidegger and, in the process, turning a deaf ear to what he himself called the philosophical motivations for his political engagement. It is important to establish the terms on which Heidegger aligned himself with National Socialism. On the basis of an untimely but by no means unprecedented understanding of the mission of the German people, the philosopher first joined but then also criticized the movement. An exposition of Heidegger's conception of Volk hence can and must treat its merits and deficiencies as a response to the enduring impasse in contemporary political philosophy of the dilemma between liberalism and authoritarianism.

Author Biography

James Phillips is Associate Lecturer at the School of Philosophy, University of Tasmania.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Death of Hegel	p. 55
Ontological Opportunism	p. 95
The Feast	p. 133
Toward the Uncanny Homeland	p. 169
The Geschlecht of the Poem	p. 218
Conclusion	p. 246
Notes	p. 249
Index	p. 275
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