Mick Hartley

Next month sees the publication of an English-language translation of Heidegger: The Introduction of Nazism Into Philosophy, by Emmanuel Faye. Carlin Romano puts the boot in:

How many scholarly stakes in the heart will we need before Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), still regarded by some as Germany's greatest 20th-century philosopher, reaches his final resting place as a prolific, provincial Nazi hack? Overrated in his prime, bizarrely venerated by acolytes even now, the pretentious old Black Forest babbler makes one wonder whether there's a university-press equivalent of wolfsbane, guaranteed to keep philosophical frauds at a distance.

It's all good stuff…

It would seem that Heidegger…will continue to flourish until even "Continental" philosophers mock him to the hilt. His influence will end only when they, and the broader world of intellectuals, recognize that scholarly evidence fingers the scowling proprietor of Heidegger's hut as a buffoon produced by German philosophy's mystical tradition. He should be the butt of jokes, not the subject of dissertations.

I wonder how much of Heidegger's lingering reputation now depends on the Hannah Arendt connection.

Jonathan Glover, in his 1999 book Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century, had much to say about Heidegger – none of it complimentary: 

In 1946, one year after even the most sheltered person knew about Auschwitz, Heidegger wrote his Letter on Humanism. In it, he said, "Perhaps the distinguishing feature of the present age lies in the fact that wholeness as a dimension of experience is closed to us. Perhaps this is the only evil."

In a nutshell, why "intellectual" became a tainted word.