>
> >So, what does Heidegger give us that we didn't
> already have ? ( You don't
> >have to mention his politics)
To add to what has already been said, I think (in my unexpert opinion and having only studied "Being and Time" in group) that the way in which Heidegger touched popular culture the most (and I am not talking about his naziism...I am talking about how he touched popular culture in an enduring way) is through the notion of "authenticity"...that each person should make a project of his/her life free as possible from the tyranny of the "they", Das Man.
The "Beats" claimed Heidegger as one of their inspirations and the effect, or perhaps association", of Heidegger to the 60s generation seems apparent.
Of course, "ethics" do not play a role in his discussion of DaSein as Heidegger was avoiding all metaphysics. So, one makes ones project, but that project can be anything...including naziism. I think this question of "ethics", lack of a metaphysic, could be one of the big differences between Heidegger and the existentialists.
To get back to this relation between Heidegger and the 60s generation, I recall a fabulous scene in the movie Woodstock. A young man is being interviewed and asked why he is going to Woodstock or maybe why he carries on his hippie lifestyle. He responds that he just thinks everybody should "do their own thing". The interviewer remarks something like, "Well, what about Nixon, he is just doing his own thing, too".
Thomas
===== "The tradition of all the dead generations
weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living"
-Karl Marx
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