"Work and Weltanschauung: The Heidegger Controversy from a German Perspective"

by Habermas, Jürgen; McCumber, John (1989)

Abstract

This text was originally written as the foreword to the German edition of Victor Farias' book, Heidegger et le Nazisme (1988). I believe a separate publication is warranted because certain aspects of the general issue have not been sufficiently distinguished in previous discussion. The moral judgment of a later generation, which in any case is called forth more strongly by Heidegger's behavior after 1945 than by his political en- gagement during the Nazi period, must not be allowed to cloud our view of the substantial content of his philosophical work. But just as little should the legitimate distinction between person and work cut off the question of whether-and, if so, to what extent-that work itself may be affected, in its philosophical substance, by the intrusion of elements from what we Germans call "Weltanschauung"--an ideologically tinged worldview. This question takes a clearer shape in light of the historical investigations of Farias and Hugo Ott. But it cannot be answered with the methods of historical analysis alone.

Keywords

Junger, Heidegger, Habermas, Nazi, National Socialism, Twentieth Century

Themes

On Heidegger, Habermas

Links to Reference

• https://doi.org/10.1086/448492
• http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/448492
• https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/448492
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1343593.pdf?casa_token=NVzRvADTTKEAAAAA:F74bh_WMOt_yGwHuF_7Gs3-rRNIKFZq3OBJ90qmO608T3jwlVOBrszZk1mTTzWnpQ4idqUHH8Kaly8moiikZjFt7ih98U-AuAOjdzvPOE8mdqDEK

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