Heidegger rejected Sartre’s humanist existentialism as philosophically worthless

Evidence

To others, Heidegger was blunter in his response. When the American scholar Hubert Dreyfus saw Being and Nothingness on Heidegger’s desk and remarked on it, Heidegger snapped, ‘How can I even begin to read this Dreck!’ — this rubbish. He began an extended essay in the form of a letter to Jean Beaufret, attacking the humanist version of existentialism that Sartre had presented to such acclaim in his ‘Existentialism Is a Humanism’ lecture, with its paean to freedom and individual action. Heidegger wanted nothing to do with this kind of philosophy. His piece, published in 1947 as ‘Letter on Humanism’ and filled with evocations of forest clearings and letting-be, stands as one of the key texts in his own decidedly anti-humanist new style of thinking. Sartre did not respond to it. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 641

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the fundamental divide between Heidegger’s anti-humanist ‘Letter on Humanism’ and Sartre’s ‘Existentialism Is a Humanism’ — the two great manifesto poles of existentialism/phenomenology. — connects to: Heidegger and Sartre may not be existentialism’s most consequential thinkers — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 107; The war permanently ruptured Sartre’s philosophical kinship with Heidegger — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 662; Sartre’s ethic of generous love reproduced Heidegger’s dominating rather than liberating solicitude — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 144
• DEFINE: Serves as orientation: distinguishes Heidegger’s post-turn letting-be philosophy from Sartre’s humanist existentialism.

Broader Connections

• The war permanently ruptured Sartre’s philosophical kinship with Heidegger #expands (0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 662
• Sartre’s ethic of generous love reproduced Heidegger’s dominating rather than liberating solicitude #complicates (0.72) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 144