Heidegger’s philosophy of being-with others coexisted with personal moral failure

Evidence

Moreover, almost every important thought in Heidegger holds some ambiguity within itself. The most dangerous ideas can also be the ones with most to offer — as in the passages calling us to authenticity and answerability. Most puzzling of all are the sections where he wrote about Mitsein, or being with others: he was the first philosopher to make this experience so central in a philosophical work. He wrote beautifully about ‘solicitude’ for others: about the moments when we ‘leap in’ for another person, out of concern and fellow feeling. Yet none of this enabled Heidegger to show any fellow feeling at all for those suffering or persecuted in Nazi Germany. He could write about Mitsein and solicitude, but he could not apply it to history, or to the predicaments of those around him, including those to whom he seemed close. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 306

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Mitsein and the ‘leap in’ mode of solicitude as technical Heideggerian concepts introduced here.
• XREF: Contrast between theorized ethics and practiced life parallels the dichotomy the reader has tracked through Sartre’s bad faith. — connects to: Heidegger’s philosophy cannot be separated from its problematic elements — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 305
• SEED: Solicitude one cannot apply to actual people—a possible essay on ethics that never reaches history.

Broader Connections

• Heidegger’s philosophy cannot be separated from its problematic elements #expands (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 305