Heidegger, History and the Holocaust

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Heidegger, History and the Holocaust is an important contribution to the longstanding debate concerning Martin Heidegger's association with National Socialism. Although a difficult topic, this ambitious new work moves the entire debate on the Heidegger controversy forward. Following Being and Time Heidegger expands on his notion of authenticity and related notions such as historicity and discusses the possibility of an authentic Dasein of a people along structurally consistent lines to his account of authenticity in Being and Time. OBrien argues that the same difficulties which appear to hamstring the early account of authenticity further affect the notion of an authentic Dasein of a people; Heideggers political myopia in the thirties can thus be attributed to an underlying failure to come to terms with some of the difficulties discussed in this study. OBrien concedes that Heidegger's philosophy is influenced by its historical period and context but argues that, however inflammatory, Heidegger's rhetoric cannot be simply reduced to crude Nazi jingoism. This book is a genuinely philosophical approach to the Heidegger controversy and a much-needed re-examination of his ideas and influences.

Reviews

OBriens work is an important contribution to the growing debate around Heideggers political and ideological sympathies ... I welcome [his] attempt toward a reconstruction of Heideggers philosophy. * Phenomenological Reviews *
This book makes an important contribution to continental philosophy. It should help to focus the debate surrounding Heidegger's relationship to Jews and National Socialism. * Zeitschrift fr Geschichtswissenschaft (Bloomsbury translation) *
In this thorough and nuanced examination of Heideggers Nazism and anti-Semitism, Mahon OBrien raises the stakes in the Heidegger affaire by confronting the question of how to understand the philosophical work of a man who was deeply compromised with the Third Reich. Unsparing in dissecting Heideggers darkest convictions and lucid in its evaluation of the philosophy, Heidegger, History and the Holocaust provides the reader with the hermeneutical tools necessary for a judicious and critical reading of Heideggers thought. * Thomas Sheehan, Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University, USA *

Author Bio

Mahon O'Brien is a Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Sussex, UK. He is the author of Heidegger and Authenticity: From Resoluteness to Releasement (Continuum, 2011)