Heidegger, German Idealism, & the Fate of Philosophy with Dr. Robert Pippin (Chasing Leviathan)
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- Опубліковано 7 чер 2024
- In this episode of Chasing Leviathan, PJ and Dr. Robert Pippin discuss Heidegger's metaphysics and his conclusion that Hegel was the culmination of the Western philosophical tradition. Pippin explores Heidegger's question of the meaning of being and how it differs from traditional philosophical inquiries, as well as Heidegger's critique of Hegel's concept of finitude. Dr. Pippin also discusses Heidegger's membership in the Nazi party and why, despite the failure of various arguments to distance Heidegger from his Nazi associations, we should still study his work.
For a deep dive into Robert Pippin's work, check out his book: The Culmination: Heidegger, German Idealism, and the Fate of Philosophy 👉 www.amazon.com/dp/0226830004
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Who thinks that they can subdue Leviathan? Strength resides in its neck; dismay goes before it. When it rises up, the mighty are terrified. Nothing on earth is its equal. It is without fear. It looks down on all who are haughty; it is king over all who are proud.
These words inspired PJ Wehry to create Chasing Leviathan. Chasing Leviathan was born out of two ideals: that truth is worth pursuing but will never be subjugated, and the discipline of listening is one of the most important habits anyone can develop.
Every episode is a dialogue, a journey into the depths of a meaningful question explored through the lens of personal experience or professional expertise.
00:00 Introduction and Background
03:36 Heidegger's Question: The Meaning of Being
09:13 Heidegger's Critique of Hegel
13:31 Heidegger's Concept of Finitude
26:02 Differences in Views on Art: Hegel, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein
28:04 Art as an Alternate Disclosive Source of Meaning
32:32 Heidegger's Controversial Involvement with the Nazi Party
36:24 Appropriating Heidegger's Work in Light of His Nazi Affiliation
40:11 Heidegger's Critique of Hegel and Global Capitalism
44:31 The Forgotten Question of Meaningfulness in Modern Society
48:58 The Presence-at-Hand and Standing-Reserve in Western Thinking
51:22 The Problem of Thoughtlessness in Late Modern Age
A brilliant interview. Thank you!
Thank you! Your encouragement means a lot.
I’ve been reading and listening to Pippin for years, and I’m consistently astonished at how he takes such fascinating topics - Hegel’s logic, Heidegger’s critique of Western Philosophy - and makes them so tedious. Art discloses things that can’t be discursively explicated? Capitalism is alienating? You don’t need Hegel or Heidegger for that!
I don't think that's entirely fair to Dr. Pippin, but I agree these topics are interesting. 😂
The discussion about Heidegger's relationship to Nazism seems to be typical where all the excuses are laid out but none of the critical questions are even raised.
Explanation #1 33:20 [Heidegger] " was a poor kid from a small messkirch from a tiny little town. He was essentially a peasant bumkin he didn't understand anything about global politics or Russia or anything else like that and he just had no idea what he was getting himself into."
Explanation #2 33:39 "Intellectuals in Germany, not just Heidegger, saw the coming war as essentially a war against communism and they thought the only alternative was a kind of materialistic capitalism and so we needed something else. So because of a kind of hysterical fear especially among the religious conservatives in Germany, the Catholic Church especially, of Soviet communism some extreme position as a barrier. Given although Heidegger was personally antisemitic he didn't seem to believe in any kind of biological anti-Semitism and certainly there's no evidence that he condoned the Holocaust."
Explanation #3 It's all because of his wife.
Explanation #4 He was a swine, an arrogant prick, and it has no real connection to his philosophy. ... It's just a personal flaw in the man's character.
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- None of these explanation claim there was any connection between Heidegger's allegiance to the Nazi regime and his philosophy. (Why bother with the denial?) The argument that there is a connection has been made but didn't make the list. Why?
- Heidegger died in 1976. Don't we need to ask why Heidegger almost completely silent about the Holocaust after WWII, for 21 years?
- What does his philosophy say about the "meaning" of Nazism and Holocaust? Nothing?
This is a very well thought out comment. You raise some good questions. What do you think about Derrida and Gadamer's response to Heidegger? It's from Heidegger, Philosophy, and Politics: The Heidelberg Conference.
If we want to truly triumph over Nazism, we have to be able to grapple with it in its most brilliant form. (Something like that. It's been a few years since I've read it.)
@@ChasingLeviathan I'm not familiar with Derrida and Gadamer's response and a web search was not fruitful. The statement you quote/paraphrase is not clear to me at all. It suggests they were still deciding whether it was even possible to "grapple" with Nazism and had not begun the effort. I have no idea what they mean by "its most brilliant form". Is that the Nazi German 1933-1945? Or Hitler's thought?
Derrida's position has been summarized below. Is this right? Does Derrida expect us to believe the "Heidegger post 1935" is the best way to triumph over Nazism? Why didn't Heidegger suggest this?
At a minimum Heidegger saw no contradiction between his philosophy and Nazism OR he didn't take his philosophy seriously to apply to the regime. Anyone who did have a problem with the Nazis either fled Germany, were put in concentration camps or kept quiet. At a maximum Heidegger saw in all or some of Nazism the realization of his notion of "authenticity".
QUOTE
... The second type of response, represented by Derrida and his followers, is to acknowledge in general that there is a problem with Heidegger's philosophy insofar as it allowed him to realize its implications by becoming a Nazi. But then Derrida tries to turn the tables on Farias by insisting that the ultimate cause of Heidegger's turn to Nazism was the fact that Heidegger had not sufficiently emancipated himself by 1933 from pre-Heideggerian ways of thinking, particularly rationalism and humanism. According to Derrida's tortured logic, once Heidegger succeeded in liberating himself from "metaphysics" following his post 1935 "turn," his philosophy became the best form of anti-Nazism.
This perverse viewpoint was aptly summed up by one of Derrida's students, Lacoue-Labarthe, who said that “Nazism is a humanism.” By this he meant that the philosophical foundations that underpinned the Enlightenment tradition of humanism had as their consequences the domination of humanity in the service of an all-encompassing universal-totalitarianism. Such thinking has become a common stock in trade of Derrida, Lacoue-Labarthe and their followers. The notion that Nazism is just another expression of Enlightenment universalism has recently been expressed by the Americans Alan Milchman and Alan Rosenberg. They write, “This principle of sufficient reason, the basis of calculative thinking, in its totalizing, and imperialistic, form, can be seen as the metaphysical underpinning which made the Holocaust possible.”[13]
13. Alan Milchman and Alan Rosenberg, “Heidegger, Planetary Technics, and the Holocaust,” Milchman and Rosenberg, p. 222
FROM: World Socialist Web Site, The Case of Martin Heidegger, Philosopher and Nazi Part 2: The Cover-up, 4 April 2000
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FWIW In my search I see the Derrida gave a speech in 1991 “Nazism and the ‘Final Solution’: Probing the Limits of Representation" but I can't find it except behind a pay-wall. I'm not familiar with the content of Derrida's position on the Nazis and the Holocaust except a LA Review of Books essay which says "Derrida was more than vocal and unequivocal in his opposition to Nazism and his elaborate reflections on and condemnations of racism and anti-Semitism. It is equally true, however, that he has left a number of traces that should give pause to any pious account of his “positions” as transparently settled on the right side of history (or on the left side of the political spectrum), as well as to any opportunistic judgment banishing him to the pit of misguided politics and worse."
Womp womp
@@johnwilsonwsws Heidegger, Philosophy, and Politics: The Heidelberg Conference is the name of the book. I believe it's still in print. Derrida, Labarthe, and Gadamer discuss this exact topic, Heidegger's commitment to Nazism and its effect on his philosophy. I believe it took place in the lecture hall where Heidegger announced that he was joining the Nazi party and heading up its education.
I wrote briefly before. To clarify, Heidegger is the most brilliant form of Nazism. We have a responsibility to understand, grapple, and respond to Heidegger with a better ethics.
There was a real emphasis on the responsibility to answer the best form of an opponent's arguments/philosophy.
If I get a chance, I'll try and make a video about the book. I think it would be helpful.
@@ChasingLeviathan Have you watched this:
"Only a God Can Save Us" | Martin Heidegger & Nazism | A Film by Jeffrey Van Davis
ua-cam.com/video/_TEEJeyZNaM/v-deo.htmlsi=NEQhoxJZ0kHfv22T
(88 mins)
at 36:50 Tom Rochmore says
"... [Heidegger] was clearly attracted to the idea of national socialism hence Hitler as a way for the German people as a whole to be authentic in the historical context and as this clearly led him out of the library and into the street. this led him towards national socialism this led him towards the idea of becoming Hitler's Rector of the University of Fryeburg. It led him to to the idea of an authentic national socialism finally which would go beyond the level of national social socialism achieved by the Nazis because national socialism finally was too important to be entrusted to the Nazis when a philosopher himself take the place and lead the leaders."
The documentary goes on to explain the Heidegger retreated after the mass assassination of the leaders of the Nazi SA in 1934. The implication is he saw the SA and not Hitler and the SS as the "authentic" revolution he supported.
This is the connection Heidegger saw in his own philosophy with something in Nazism.
I was afraid, good philosopher can't be good man, who love the truth, for good, and not seeing how everithing is hopless. To see the profit how have very little with real value...
If I understand your comment correctly, I would argue that brilliance is a different quality from faith. We have to believe that the world can be better. It doesn't seem like Heidegger really had that.
@@ChasingLeviathan I was afraid "true is againts the life", like "will to power" and "overpowering the world itself" search for feeling, powerful but in core valuable i guess. (Or proving) "And was afraid smart people must not find value in much less capable or average"...But good philosopher can have good heart (emotions) and child in himself too, wich can be independent from what they thinks have value...I don't know if have connection with faith.We ( like a civilisation) are not learned or" tricked by Platon" to be good i guess, like Neitzche was thinking... :D I am happy for that. :)
Erich Fromm was good man, philosopher too, i was afraid he might be wrong in that deep sense..(Even valuing with his heart, everything wich is alife...) But is not alone.Duscursive Intelect is far for everything valuble in spiritual life, arts proves that...Like mister Pippin referes too..