TO BE IS NOT-TO-BE: NIHILISM, IDEOLOGY AND THE QUESTION OF BEING IN HEIDEGGER’S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY. PART I: BEING AND TIME
RRSS 2016 No. 11 - Romanian Review of Social Sciences
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Authors:
• Mihai NOVAC -
Keywords: Being (Sein), being (entity/Seiende), Nihilism, Dasein, authenticity (Eigentlichkeit), ideology
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Abstract:
Heidegger’s political preoccupations came more explicitly to light after his provisional flirtation with and subsequent rejection of Nazi ideology. Knowingly, his initial interest was far more ontological in nature. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean that his Being and Time period was not rich in substantial subjacent political presuppositions and implications. The main focus of my present endeavor lies precisely therewith: basically this is an attempt at a non-esoteric conceptual reconstruction of Heidegger’s philosophical path with a special interest in its political presuppositions and, maybe more importantly, implications. Its guiding thread is the relation between the question of Being (Seinsfrage), the so called Dasein (with special emphasis on the Being-towards-death/Sein zum Tode) and his notion of authenticity (Eigentlichkeit as being one’s own). As such, what we are dealing with here is some sort of Heideggerian political existential analysis. Thereby I will try to provide (i) a sufficient thematization of the subjacent political stratum of his thought in Being and Time, ii) an account of his flirtation with and, especially, rejection of Nazi ideology as part of (iii) a more general critical analysis of ideological modernity as essentially conducive to nihilism (the so called forgetfulness-of-Being, in its political sense, approximately Heidegger’s version of alienation). In conclusion I will try to argue for an individualistic interpretation of Heidegger’s political philosophy, one which is essentially opposed to Nazi ideology (as well as to any political ideology whatsoever for that matter). This is the first part of the aforementioned endeavor, corresponding to Heidegger’s Being and Time period.