Heidegger’s uncommented 1935 lecture shattered Habermas’s separation of politics from philosophy

Evidence

Until Heidegger’s Introduction to Metaphysics was published, my political and philosophical confessions, if you like, were two completely different things. They were two universes that barely touched on another. Then I saw that Heidegger, whose philosophy I used to live in, had given this lecture in 1935 and was publishing it nowthis was what really shook mewithout a word of explanation. So I wrote one of my first articles in the Frankfurter Allgemeine about it. I was naïve, and I thought, how can one of our greatest philosophers do something like that? — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2296 (#expands, via linked claim)

Heidegger’s philosophy forms a dense, complicated whole in which every aspect depends on every other. If you try to remove everything unpleasant from Being and Time, the structure collapses. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 305 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

His lectures were a form of theatre, ‘masterfully staged’. Heidegger urged his students to think, but not necessarily to answer back. ‘He thought that saying the first unthought-out thing that came to mind, which is called “discussion” today, was empty chitchat.’ He liked students to be respectful, but never sycophantic. ‘When a student once read out the minutes, peppered with Heidegger’s own phraseology, he interrupted her: “We do not Heideggerize here! Let’s move on to the matter in hand.” ’ Picht suspected that some of this Heideggerian rudeness was a defensive reaction: he felt threatened, both by others and from within himself. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 191 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Heidegger’s unrepentant 1953 publication of his Nazi-era lecture shocked Habermas into political engagement — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2296; Habermas progressively downgraded Heidegger’s thought between 1953 and 1959 — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2498; Heidegger’s philosophy cannot be separated from its problematic elements — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 305 (+4 more)

Related

• Heidegger’s unrepentant 1953 publication of his Nazi-era lecture shocked Habermas into political engagement (similarity 0.93)
• Heidegger’s philosophy cannot be separated from its objectionable politics without collapse. (similarity 0.88)
• Habermas progressively downgraded Heidegger’s thought between 1953 and 1959 (similarity 0.88)
• Heidegger staged his lectures as controlled theatre and derided spontaneous discussion (similarity 0.83)
• Heidegger’s Nazi commitment emerged from the objective structure of his philosophy (similarity 0.81)
• Heidegger’s philosophical vocabulary shifted with political circumstances while its core motifs stayed constant (similarity 0.80)
• Postwar German re-education shaped Habermas’s political disillusionment (similarity 0.79)
• Heidegger’s philosophical themes could be travestied into Nazi propaganda (similarity 0.79)
• Heidegger’s authentic-versus-inauthentic distinction left politics to heroic fatalism without causes (similarity 0.79)
• Heidegger’s existential seriousness swayed young Horkheimer against formal philosophy (similarity 0.79)
• Heidegger’s lecture style captivated students through dramatic obscurity rather than clarity (similarity 0.79)
• Husserl’s phenomenological watchword was repurposed by Heidegger as a metaphysical openness (similarity 0.79)
• Heidegger’s theology offered no prospect of rescue or reconciliation (similarity 0.78)
• Heidegger’s reputation thrived on lectures despite a decade of non-publication (similarity 0.78)
• Heidegger’s inaugural lecture opened with a surprising deadpan joke (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Heidegger’s unrepentant 1953 publication of his Nazi-era lecture shocked Habermas into political engagement #expands (0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2296
• Heidegger’s philosophy cannot be separated from its problematic elements #qualifies (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 305
• Habermas progressively downgraded Heidegger’s thought between 1953 and 1959 #corroborates (0.70) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2498
• Heidegger staged his lectures as controlled theatre and derided spontaneous discussion #exemplifies (0.70) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 191