Heidegger and the Question of the Political
Dissertation, Loyola University of Chicago (
1990)
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Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to show that there is a coherent--even though highly questionable--political thinking in Heidegger's texts. Specifically, the dissertation is engaged in showing how, from a Heideggerian perspective, the political can only be thought from its essence, and that is from the question of Being. Such an essence is ultimately defined in terms of "poetry" , and in such a way that Holderlin becomes the main "political" force of Germany for Heidegger. ;Chapter one deals with the textual itinerary that brings Heidegger to define the essence of politics in terms of poetry. The texts involved are the 1933 "Rectoral Address," Introduction to Metaphysics and "The Origin of the Work of Art." ;Chapter 2 is devoted to a political reading of the pieces Heidegger wrote on Holderlin in the 30's and 40's. Specifically, this chapter shows how Holderlin's poetry can be viewed as the historical and political future of the West. ;Chapter 3 is engaged in a critique of Heidegger's understanding of politics and tries to show how certain philosophical presuppositions enabled Heidegger's involvement with Nazism. ;Chapter 4 is an attempt to retrieve another understanding of the political community based on a reading of Being and Time. Such an understanding avoids the metaphysical presuppositions that were revealed in chapter 3