[lbo-talk] Heidegger

Marvin Gandall marvgandall at videotron.ca
Wed Jul 9 07:49:33 PDT 2008


Chris Doss writes:
>
> Wait a second -- Heidegger's repudiation could not have been part of a
> attempt to gain readmission to society, since his statement was made to
> Der Spiegel, in an interview to be published only after his death.
>
> --- On Wed, 7/9/08, Marvin Gandall <marvgandall at videotron.ca> wrote:
>> Apart from a few die-hards, which ex-Nazis didn't
>> "repudiate" Hitler's
>> "errors"? It's the price of readmission to
>> society, a common ritual demanded
>> of losers by victors. You won't have to search far in
>> Iraq today for old
>> Saddam sycophants more than willing to repudiate their
>> Ba'athist past in
>> order to pursue their careers.
========================================= Oh, c'mon. You can do better than that. The controversy which swirled about his Nazi past and the sincerity of his "repudiation" long predated his death.

Heidegger downplayed his Nazi beliefs in a statement to a de-Nazification tribunal set up by the occupying powers and to former associates like Marcuse and others in the immediate aftermath of the war.

While acknowledging his membership in the NSDAP throughout the Nazi period, he maintained - as is customary in such political repentences - that he was inactive and ignorant of the abuses perpetuated in the party's name, whose "ideals" he still admired.

See for a start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidegger_and_Nazism#Post-rectorate_National_Socialist_period



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