Abstract

This article looks at the controversy surrounding Heidegger's National Socialism and asks the following question: was Heidegger a Nazi and if so, why did he not disavow it more vigorously after the war? This leads to an argument that Heidegger's pride led him to amend his work to dilute the consistencies of his work with National Socialism after the fact, in addition to allowing his work to remain obscure in meaning. He did the same with the rejection of transcendence, and for the same reasons: to do so would be to point out that his work, however radical, achieved less that he claimed for it. Heidegger’s story remains a cautionary tale for any intellectual who comes after him