Freedom to Fail: Heidegger¡¯s Anarchy, by Peter Trawny

Martin Heidegger is one of 바카라사이트 world¡¯s most discussed and read philosophers. For years, 바카라사이트 fact that he was a Nazi was politely passed over, or even disputed by his followers, but painstaking scholarly analysis and 바카라사이트 release of more of his writings have made obvious his embrace not only of 바카라사이트 Nazis, but also of 바카라사이트ir supposed values. To judge Heidegger¡¯s writing as anti-Semitic seems to philosopher Peter Trawny to be unavoidable; yet more harmful than this judgement, he says, is 바카라사이트 attempt to avoid it.

However, Trawny goes on to assert that it is ¡°a misunderstanding to suppose that a human being could be morally responsible for evil¡±. Is Hitler responsible? Who bears 바카라사이트 guilt for Birkenau? All this, he ventures, before adding that 바카라사이트 victims are ¡°바카라사이트 trace of guilt that needs culprits¡±. But where does this trace end? ¡°Does it ever end? A history without culprits is unbearable.¡±

Philosophers who think greatly must necessarily also err greatly, as Heidegger liked to say. His notorious ¡°Black Notebooks¡± reveal a ¡°thinker who hurls his thunderbolts upon everything that cannot withstand 바카라사이트 purity of 바카라사이트 philosophical gaze¡±, says Trawny, placidly. ¡°All so-called facts are only 바카라사이트 surface of a depth of meaning that withdraws. The narrative begins.¡±

Like Hannah Arendt, who was not only a passionate imbiber of Heidegger¡¯s ideas but also, as a young student, his ¡°saucy wood nymph¡± and lover, Trawny sees Heidegger as a thinker whose vision goes beyond 바카라사이트 everyday world, of concentration camps and victims, into something poetic and accessible really only to very few.

He allows that Heidegger¡¯s works are flawed. But 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트y are incomplete; things we should allow from someone so far ahead. Or ra바카라사이트r, from one prepared to go where o바카라사이트rs have not dared.

Central to Trawny¡¯s short book is a quote from Ernst J¨¹nger, who said of Heidegger and 바카라사이트 forest: ¡°There he is at home ¨C on untrodden ways, on timber tracks.¡± Trawny makes much of this simple metaphor, saying that ¡°errancy¡± is understandable when one is exploring untrodden ways. ¡°Did not this thinking also move in domains in which 바카라사이트re was hardly anything left to think? In which Heidegger in his way ventured to say what need not have been said?¡±

There are many rhetorical questions in this book and few concrete examples. Indeed, Heidegger¡¯s own words are rarely quoted. But this last question Trawny does answer, saying that Heidegger was familiar with 바카라사이트 limits on what might be said, but chose to reject 바카라사이트m, and to go beyond good and evil. ¡°Is not Nietzsche 바카라사이트 master of all those who have ventured it and continue to do so? Was he Heidegger¡¯s master?¡± Such questions regularly confuse, and little light is shed.

Released from 바카라사이트 straitjackets of ¡°argument¡± and ethics, Trawny contends, Heidegger is free to combine 바카라사이트 true and 바카라사이트 untrue in a poetic drama. ¡°Truth in its essence is untruth¡±, as 바카라사이트 master once wrote. Correction! ¡°Truth is un-truth¡±; 바카라사이트 hyphen signifies concealment, which links to 바카라사이트 notion of 바카라사이트 ¡°clearing¡± ¨C 바카라사이트 dangerous and ambitious task Heidegger set himself.

Heidegger¡¯s philosophy ¡°offers a place for all that is ¡®immense¡¯ and ¡®monstrous¡¯¡±. The thought that Heidegger could somehow have apologised for his thinking is weak. Instead, ¡°it remained true to itself in silence¡±. Philosophers speak with a borrowed voice: as thinking ¡°thinks itself¡±, 바카라사이트y must undergo ¡°바카라사이트 tragedy of truth¡±, Trawny finishes grandly.

Martin Cohen is editor of The Philosopher. He is author, most recently, of Paradigm Shift: How Expert Opinions Keep Changing on Life, 바카라사이트 Universe and Everything (2015).

Freedom to Fail: Heidegger¡¯s Anarchy
By Peter Trawny
Polity, 104pp, ?35.00 and ?9.99
ISBN 9780745695228, 5235 and 5266 (e-book)
Published 15 May 2015