Heidegger’s core concepts could as easily justify anti-Nazi resistance as submission

Evidence

There can be little doubt that he was thinking in political terms when he wrote his passages on death and resoluteness. Yet, even here, Heidegger’s basic concepts could have led to quite a different intepretation. Just as his ideas of the ‘they’ and authenticity could have led him to a case for resisting totalitarian brainwashing, so his ideas of resoluteness and the acceptance of mortality could have formed a framework for courageous resistance to the regime and its intimidation techniques. It could have been a manifesto for anti-totalitarian heroism. Instead, it is apparent that Heidegger intended a mass of highly charged political meanings to be visible in this text — though perhaps only to those who were already inclined to be sympathetic. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 294

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the wider tension in existentialism between the they-self conformity concept and freedom — recalling Sartre’s work on bad faith and group coercion. — connects to: Heidegger refused to disavow Nazism because he saw easy repudiations as loathsome — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 604; Heidegger embraced Nazism out of conviction, not convenience or coercion. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 269; Heidegger’s Nazi commitment emerged from the objective structure of his philosophy — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2299 (+1 more)
• QUESTION: The counterfactual — Heidegger’s philosophy as a manifesto for resistance — is worth chasing: which later thinkers actually drew on it that way?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 294

Broader Connections

• Heidegger refused to disavow Nazism because he saw easy repudiations as loathsome #complicates (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 604