Heidegger

How about this:

Heidegger's Nazism makes him more intriguing, though you probably don't want to follow too closely in his footsteps, as one might end up a Nazi as well.

Nitsche said something along the lines of (I know you all are going to hate me for not getting the wording right): If you stare too long into the darkness, the darkness starts to stare into you.

Well, let me begin with what a pleasure it is to rejoin this masculine string of thought about a nazi... has there been one woman who has joined in yet???? Maybe that's Heidegger's fault too. After rereading my earlier post I want to clarify that I meant no offense to Mike, or at least don't now - it was merely the off handed manner with which you dismissed a book filled with so many ideas. Heidegger set out to understand Nietzsche better than Nietzsche had understood himself. If this sounds ridiculous to you, or someone, explain why instead of just calling it that and pretending you've instantaneously proven yourself more insightful than heidegger with so insightless a critique. Barnaby, my good man, hats off to you on the philosophy gig, how's that working out? Didn't mean to insinuate that you weren't a philosopher, it was more a confession I spread out too generally, but best of luck to you with that. Ian you know a hell of a lot about everyone's favorite nazi no question - I'm almost a little reticent trying to call into question any of your assertions, you write with such authority as if you damn well might have known the bastard. Discussion of Heidegger's invovlement with the nazi movement, in order to be slightly more adequately understood, ought to be situated within his immersement in the philosophy of Plato in the late 20s early 30s where he became put under the spell of the allegory of the cave. He was actively seeking for a philosophy that could become political, he wanted to lead his nation away from the shadows and into the light he had discoevered in the small cabin where he subjected himself to Thought. The nazi revolution was for him a revolution of Being: Dasein, the chance for Dasein to reinterpret itself in light of the new horizons now surrounding it (or not surrounding it, ça depend). The whole epsiode fits quite easily into the story of the man so blinded by his own ideals and desires failed to see who he was dealing with - a story of Faustus. Should he have known better? Go ahead and moralize, it all counts for nil anyway. In my opinion heidegger was a real son of a bitch, and if I were a student of his I'd of probably delighted in seeing him trip if his shoelaces got somehow tied together. But I don't like how we talk about the philosophy of philosophers as though it were the weather, where what is more important is who has the bigger doppler system, the heavier brain, the more books, the fanciest way with words... how much does Heidegger or Nietzsche or any of these old thinking books really count in these conversations. Just clarifying? 'Oh, I guess Heidegger was a nazi and it does matter for his philosophy," then what? I'm in a detached mood from my thoughts now, which seems a more proper way to think, instead of letting our egos do the bulk of it. It also seems to me that if we really opened ourselves up to the depth of Heidegger's philosophy our discussion of him would focus severly less upon his political affiliations and more around the abyss all authentic thought revolves around. It's disapointing to see such profound ideas listed like recipes to TV dinners... i know, just trying to spread knowledge... make aware... why be a rain cloud, or not even that... You all appear older than me. Maybe ideas dry out and one is no longer held beneath the charm or affect and merely clings to the remnant of having once been, and perhaps my frustration with such a type of thinking springs from my fear that the same thing might happen to me, and I've chosen the safety of this isolated inconsequential internet identity posting thing-a-m-jig as the target for such apprehension... but that still has nothing to do with whether I'm right or wrong... just like heidegger being a nazi has nothing to do with whether his assertions that 'the meaning of Being is Time,' or 'pure thinking is poetic,' are right or wrong, and isn't that the more interesting thing to think about, to write about, to stake our egos on? Maybe not, but it sounds like it should be, no? While learning about Heidegger as a Nazi can offer us biographical insight into him as a man, or even perhaps added consideration as to certain aims of his philosophy, it can neither negate nor affirm as right or wrong the validity of his statements, to portend that it could would be lazy thinking: "he would think that, he was a....": and just like that we've shut ourselves off to thought.