Heidegger and Cassirer clashed publicly at Davos in March 1929

Evidence

Heidegger maintained in the discussion that philosophy’s task was to show humanity, in spite of all its freedom, the nothingness of its Dasein', from the corrupt point of view of someone who merely uses the works of the intellect to throw humanity back into the severity of its fate’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 417 (#expands, via linked claim)

Although no clear winner emerged from the debate, it seemed natural to many observers to cast Cassirer as a throwback to a civilised yet outmoded past, with Heidegger as the prophet of a dangerous yet thrilling future. One person who interpreted the debate that way was Emmanuel Levinas, who had now moved on from his days as Husserl’s student and was attending the conference as a fervent supporter of Heidegger. As he said to an interviewer later, it was like seeing one world end and another begin. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 243 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Heidegger’s Davos debate with Cassirer framed philosophy as exposing Dasein’s nothingness. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 417; The Davos debate was perceived as a generational rupture between Enlightenment and existentialism — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 243

Broader Connections

• Heidegger’s Davos debate with Cassirer framed philosophy as exposing Dasein’s nothingness. #expands (0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 417
• The Davos debate was perceived as a generational rupture between Enlightenment and existentialism #expands (0.90) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 243