Heidegger invoked truth-telling to justify abandoning a student to Nazi danger.

Evidence

Müller turned to Heidegger — but Heidegger pedantically stuck to his point, saying, ‘I gave the only answer that corresponds to the truth. But I have wrapped it in a cover of justifiable, good things.’ … Heidegger said: ‘As a Catholic, you should know that one must tell the truth. Consequently, I cannot cross out the sentence.’ … These final words were what astonished Müller most. All Heidegger seemed to care about was justifying his own actions, with no thought to the danger facing the other man. Fortunately, Müller escaped serious consequences on this occasion, but it was no thanks to Heidegger. He remembered his parting remark to Heidegger that day: ‘The point is not that I might hold it against you, the point is my existence.’ His feelings about his former mentor were different from then on: he could never forget his experience of ‘a certain ambiguity in Heidegger’s character’. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 300

Categorization

• XREF: The author explicitly links this to Marcel’s ‘crispation,’ a concept from earlier in the book — this vignette crystalizes that notion and could be paired with it. — connects to: Heidegger hid career-damaging political judgments behind claims of truthfulness — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 300
• SEED: A compelling illustration for an essay on how appeals to abstract duty (truth-telling) can serve self-interested moral cowardice.

Broader Connections

• Heidegger hid career-damaging political judgments behind claims of truthfulness #expands (0.90) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 300