Heidegger’s vigilance meant resolute German destiny, not opposing Nazi violence

Evidence

Heidegger believed in vigilance too: he was determined to shock people out of their forgetfulness. But for him, vigilance did not mean calling attention to Nazi violence, to the intrusion of state surveillance, or to the physical threats to his fellow humans. It meant being decisive and resolute in carrying through the demands history was making upon Germany, with its distinctive Being and destiny. It meant getting in step with the chosen hero. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 289

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth pursuing: how did Heidegger’s ‘decisiveness’ concept (Entschlossenheit) become ethically hollow — a question central to the existentialist literature on the Heidegger-Nazism affair.
• XREF: connects to: Heidegger’s ‘uncanniness’ described Germans’ pervasive anxiety and unreality under Nazism — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 258; Eminent German intellectuals dismissed the Nazi threat despite the real danger. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 280; Heidegger admired Hitler as a craftsman shaping Germany, not as an ideologue — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 282 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Heidegger refused to disavow Nazism because he saw easy repudiations as loathsome #expands (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 604
• Heidegger embraced Nazism out of conviction, not convenience or coercion. #corroborates (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 269
• Heidegger’s authentic-versus-inauthentic distinction left politics to heroic fatalism without causes #expands (0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 412
• Heidegger’s Nazi commitment emerged from the objective structure of his philosophy #qualifies (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2299