Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 07:47:38 -0600
Subject: Re: Heidegger in Germany


Michael Eldred wrote:

> Translation (rough):
> "'Race' is a concept of power -- presupposes _subjectivity_, cf. Ernst Juenger 
> (_The Worker_). This means: only where the being of beings, although in a veiled 
> and unconceived way, holds sway as power does the idea of 'race' come to the 
> fore. It is drummed into the consciousness of a people as a component part of 
> its self-assertion and that in connection with an emphasis on 'biological' ideas 
> in general, especially when 'life' is preconceived as a 'struggle for 
> existence'. (Cf. the high regard for Darwin in today's Russian Communism.) 
> 
> Conversely, where ideas of race and a reliance (counting) on racial forces 
> arises, this must be seen as a sign that the pure power-essencing of being has 
> been set loose by being itself into the abandonment of beings by being. This, 
> however, characterizes the age of the completion (consummation) of metaphysics. 
> The cultivation of race is a necessary measure towards which the end of 
> modernity presses. To it corresponds the co-option of culture (which is already 
> predestined in the essence of 'culture') by 'cultural politics' which itself 
> remains merely a means for the empowering of power."
> 
> If an essential part of Heidegger's thinking is a questioning of metaphysics, to 
> interpret this passage as an endorsement of the necessity of "Rassenpflege" 
> would mean denying an essential part of the thinking of being: the overcoming of 
> metaphysics through questioning it.

What form of government would not presuppose metaphysics, which Heidegger 
is trying to overcome? In other words, if Heidegger's endorsement of Naziism 
was due to some personal lapse precisely because he sought to overcome 
metaphysics whereas Naziism presupposed some stage of metaphysics, then 
it seems that this would apply to ANY form of government whatsoever (if indeed 
any form of government presupposes some metaphysical stance). Thus, the 
tension would not be between Heidegger's philosophy and Naziism PER SE, 
but between it and any particular form of government at all. It would then seem 
that the endorsement of any form of government whatsoever would have been a 
personal lapse. Does Heidegger's philosophy require complete political 
neutrality?

Anthony Crifasi


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