For Work / Against Work
Debates on the centrality of work

Heidegger and Nazism

by Farías, Víctor (1989)

Abstract

In part, the importance o f the book depends on the importance attributed to Heidegger, who, as this century draws to a close, looms ever larger as one o f the principal philosophers o f our age— perhaps, as some argue, the author o f the most important philosophical work since Hegel’s Phenomenology. There is no question that Heidegger is a most significant thinker, although the nature o f his contribution has been called into serious question since the end o f World War II because o f his link to Nazism. Heidegger stands before us as a singular case, philosophically sui generis, the source o f one o f the most influential cur­rents o f philosophical thought in our century, the only major thinker to opt for Nazism, the main example o f absolute evil in our time— possibly o f any time. The combination is without any known historical precedent.

Key Passage

It  is  only  by  becoming  a  “ worker”  that  the  stu­dent  can  authentically  become  tied  to  the  state,  “ because  the  National Socialist  state  is  a  workers’  state” (p.122)

Keywords

Heidegger, Student, Academic Work, Nazi, National Socialism

Themes

On Heidegger

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