Yes, but he is still worth engaging with and reading if you’re at all interested in philosophy beyond specific individuals.
What is considered Late Heidegger is more heavily Nazistic, in my opinion, but his Early and Middle period not as much. His Early work is especially interesting, his lectures in particular. And his Middle period, when he wrote Being and Time, is far more “proto-existentialist” and religiously influenced than anything else.
At the end of the day, his philosophy is not overtly political and it is not at all ethical so it’s easier to engage with despite him being a Nazi. I’m not even a huge fan of Heidegger though and I’m not denying he was a Nazi, for the record. Heidegger even refused to apologize for being a Nazi to Jewish philosophers that would still visit him to learn from him after the War. But Schmidt was a Nazi too and it’s still good to learn them. There are not too many intelligent Nazi/fascist writers anymore, and Heidegger was a genius for his part.
I do prefer Levinas to Heidegger, though. He is the Jewish, anti-Nazi answer to Heidegger. Levinas was Heidegger’s former student and deliberately sought to undo Heideggerian philosophy. He is more founded in Talmud and tries to find a rupture with the history of Western philosophy up to that point and was temporarily held as POW during the War. But Levinas is also anti-Communist/USSR/Marxist, unfortunately. His philosophical understanding of “the political” isn’t bad though and still informs my thinking.
Yes, but he is still worth engaging with and reading if you’re at all interested in philosophy beyond specific individuals.
What is considered Late Heidegger is more heavily Nazistic, in my opinion, but his Early and Middle period not as much. His Early work is especially interesting, his lectures in particular. And his Middle period, when he wrote Being and Time, is far more “proto-existentialist” and religiously influenced than anything else.
At the end of the day, his philosophy is not overtly political and it is not at all ethical so it’s easier to engage with despite him being a Nazi. I’m not even a huge fan of Heidegger though and I’m not denying he was a Nazi, for the record. Heidegger even refused to apologize for being a Nazi to Jewish philosophers that would still visit him to learn from him after the War. But Schmidt was a Nazi too and it’s still good to learn them. There are not too many intelligent Nazi/fascist writers anymore, and Heidegger was a genius for his part.
I do prefer Levinas to Heidegger, though. He is the Jewish, anti-Nazi answer to Heidegger. Levinas was Heidegger’s former student and deliberately sought to undo Heideggerian philosophy. He is more founded in Talmud and tries to find a rupture with the history of Western philosophy up to that point and was temporarily held as POW during the War. But Levinas is also anti-Communist/USSR/Marxist, unfortunately. His philosophical understanding of “the political” isn’t bad though and still informs my thinking.
Recommend both! Enlightened Centrist Philosophy moment.