Abstract

This book is "a series of [eight] philosophical-political essays in which the boundary between philosophy and politics remains hazy and the discussion shifts readily across this disciplinary divide". Four of the essays, all written since 1989, have already appeared in print, and two of those have been revised for this book. Fred Dallmayr, who is Dee Professor of Political Theory at Notre Dame, finds in Heidegger's writings after 1933 "a prolonged struggle to expel or subdue the virus" of fascism, to which Heidegger was exposed during his "encounter" with National Socialism. He aims for "another political reading" of Heidegger's work. These essays are in direct counterpoint to the great many articles and books published during the past few years that explore what is claimed to be Heidegger's life-long fascination with fascism. Dallmayr, by means of a close reading of selected texts, presents the picture of a badly shaken philosopher who sought redemption in an entirely new turn of thought quite opposed to anything at all resembling pedagogic or political authoritarianism. On the question of why Heidegger never fully recanted publicly his affiliation with the Nazis during his rectorate at the University of Freiburg, Dallmayr asks: "But would such a retraction--and I mean a complete reversal, since nothing else would do--really have served anyone's purposes"? As a matter of fact, Heidegger did just that in private.