From: "Stuart Elden" <stuartelden-AT-btconnect.com>
Subject: RE: A Taster
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 09:49:24 +0100


Well, I'm not sure it can be dismissed like that. The problem of this
address, for me, has always been the way in which his philosophy is
developed and appropriated for his political purpose. It's not that Being
and Time is, in itself, fascistic, but that elements within it can be used,
and were used by Heidegger, to justify particular political positions.

The shift from individual to collective Dasein is, as i've argued elsewhere,
the key to Heidegger's politics. He just doesn't think through the notion of
being together politically very clearly. I've argued this against his
reading of Aristotle's notion of phronesis - for Aristotle phronesis is
something which has different registers: the individual, the household, the
polis. Heidegger strips this out in his reading of the Nicomachean Ethics,
and concentrates only on the former, and it seems to me this problem is the
root of his politics. Section 74 of B&T is the one Fritsche examines in
detail. See also Heidegger's Roots by Charles Bambach.

I'd like a close reading of the full text of the Rectoral address - this is
part of it posted here by Jud - and doing this would require a range of
contexts: Heidegger's own work, the political situation at the time, the
notions here plucked from Junger, etc.

Stuart



> on 1/10/03 11:54 pm, GEVANS613-AT-aol.com at GEVANS613-AT-aol.com wrote:
>
> > On with the Nazi Motley...
> >
> > "It imposes an obligation to take part, in thought and deed, in the
> > endeavours, the desires, and the skills of all classes and all
> members of the
> > nation.
> > This bond shall henceforth be firmly established, and rooted in
> the student's
> > existence, by the Labour Service. The second bond is that with
> the honour and
> > fate of the nation in the midst of other nations. It demands a
> readiness -
> > secured by skill and education, and firmed by discipline - to
> put one's very
> > life
> > in the scales. This bond shall embrace and penetrate all
> student existence as
> > Military Service. The third student bond is that the spiritual
> mission of the
> > German people. This nation determines its fate whilst living historical
> > existence under the evident sign of the superiority of the
> political forces
> > that
> > shape the human condition, and whilst ever struggling anew for
> the attainment
> > of
> > its spiritual world. Thus exposed to the extreme precariousness
> of its own
> > existence, this nation wishes to be a spiritual nation. It
> demands of itself,
> > and
> > for itself in its leaders and guardians, the hardest clarity of
> the highest,
> > widest, richest knowledge. ... These three bonds - bonds that
> reach from the
> > people to the fate of the nation in its spiritual mission - all emanate
> > equally
> > from the German soul. The three services to which they give
> life - Labour
> > Service, Military Service, Knowledge Service - are equally
> essential and of
> > equal
> > rank."
>
> I'm assuming that this is a quote from the first mentioned speech of 1933.
> Reading this (not really philosophical) text my immediate response is that
> this could equally have come from the Nazi's enemy's (genuine)
> socialist/communist tongue; or indeed, from some capitalist multinational
> corporation CEO's speech to its minions. Some of it sounds Churchillian,
> some like Bush: with some leeway, just (boring, crude, political) basic
> nationalistic and/or corporative creed stuff. Hear it everyday on
> the radio
> and tele. These days we just ignore it as a background and go
> back to sleep.
> What's the big fuss here, eh? I mean, in his philosophy, Heidegger is
> delicate, complex, brilliant; in his politics, crude, cliched,
> boring (and,
> I agree, Jud, that his 'poems' are crap, although his
> appreciation of great
> poetry is masterful). So what gives about this standard issue political
> speechifying? And what is it *really* to do with the
> philosophical thinking?
>
> So far your taster is tasteless to my palate.
>
> (My father spoke just like Heidegger, although infinitely cruder and
> inarticulately so, but about the English and their greatness,
> etc. He was a
> basically decent bloke with a bullying streak, brought up in that
> incendiary
> atmosphere of the 20s and 30s, who thought quite calmly that the "Japs"
> deserved the Bomb).
>
> regards
>
> michaelP
>
>
>
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