Heidegger’s Nazi involvement was publicly known but only became a major scandal in 1987

Evidence

64 Responses to Heidegger’s Nazism: Heidegger’s involvement was well known from the start. Sartre knew of it in 1944, as did the French occupiers in his area of Germany after the war. More was revealed by a major collection of documents published in 1962: Guido Schneeburger’s Nachlese zu Heidegger. When I was studying Heidegger in the early 1980s, the Nazi question did not loom large, partly because of a then-prevalent view that questions of life and personality were not significant in considering the philosophy. In 1987 this changed, with the Chilean historian Victor Farías’ Heidegger y el Nazismo (Heidegger and Nazism), a work condemning Heidegger’s entire philosophy as contaminated by his Nazism. There ensued a ‘Heidegger affair’, especially in France, with some arguing that Heidegger’s philosophy was unaffected by his politics, and others joining Farías’ denunciation. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1321

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general question of how philosophers’ biographies relate to their thought — parallel to my interest in whether an author’s personal conduct should affect how we read their work. — connects to: Political scandal prevented personal contact between Sartre and Heidegger — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 643; Heidegger’s Nazi involvement remained a recurring French intellectual scandal — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1311; Heidegger’s Nazi past and obscure late prose drove away former admirers — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 603

Broader Connections

• Heidegger’s Nazi involvement remained a recurring French intellectual scandal #qualifies (0.85) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1311
• Heidegger’s Nazi past and obscure late prose drove away former admirers #expands (0.72) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 603