Arendt remained deeply ambivalent about Heidegger throughout her life
Evidence
Arendt never quite resolved the puzzle of Heidegger. Sometimes she condemned her former lover and tutor; at other times she worked to rehabilitate his reputation or to help people understand him. She met him a few times when she visited Europe, and tried (but failed) to help him and Elfride sell the manuscript of Being and Time in America to raise cash. Elements of his work always remained central to her own philosophy. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 949
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Arendt’s The Life of the Mind and the Heidegger-Arendt relationship covered broadly in philosophy-of-20th-century overviews. — connects to: Arendt excused Heidegger’s Nazism with the Thales metaphor of an unworldly thinker — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 950; Heidegger’s Nazi involvement remained a recurring French intellectual scandal — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1311; Heidegger’s philosophy cannot be separated from its problematic elements — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 305 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Heidegger’s Nazi involvement remained a recurring French intellectual scandal
#complicates(0.80) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1311 - Nazi-era documentation did not overturn Arendt’s original analysis
#corroborates(0.80) - Heidegger’s philosophy cannot be separated from its problematic elements
#complicates(0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 305 - Heidegger’s Nazi past and obscure late prose drove away former admirers
#exemplifies(0.72) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 603