Human, All Too Human - Martin Heidegger- Part 6 of 6

[chris65536]

A hit piece on Heidegger. I would expect nothing else from the BBC.

[TheJoyfulPianist]

this biography should be called, "Heidegger-Nazi....oh and he did some philosophy," If you bring this fact of Heidegger up in the face of almost any University philosopher, they'll sneer at you and ask, "And your point being?"

He wrote possibly the greatest philosophical treatises of the 20th century and his personal life does not detract from this. It only detracts from his own genius, which is a shame.

[eltonjohnfan109]

Is it really a shame he joined the nazi party? I mean, that's got nothing to do with anything, he's remembered for his philosophy. Besides, things aren't black and white; Hitler was supposedly a nice enough guy to those who knew him personally. I'm not in any way a Nazi sympathiser, but I'm just saying the world is a complex place and the fact that so many reasonable people bought into the idea of Nazism is proof that we can't just dismiss it. It was just an meme, along with the rest of them.

[Erlind255]

From part 2 to part 6 is only about relation of Heidegger with Nazi party. People want to hear more about the significance of his philosophical works not about what he thoughts about Jews. Heidegger is not worldly valued for being a Nazi, but about his major importance in history of philosophy. This documentary is getting only to the depth of the gossips about Heidegger. Therefore, I think that this documentary is totally not successful.

[twizzledizzle88]

Rather good documentary. Quite a bit more unsettling than the Wikipedia article on Heidegger. His life might be an example of excellent, profound shaping of the mind, while being dangerously oblivious to the heart, human warmth, "goodness" or whatever one wants to call it.

[selvmordspilot]

Funny how everyone assumes that Heidegger was simply bad. That the reasoning behind his joining the party must somehow be flawed. The real disgrace to Heideggers work is, as i view it: that people do not seem to have understood him very well.

Why apologize if what he did was the right thing, and his only mistake was not succeeding - a failure brought about not by his lack of effort or ability, but rather his being ahead of his time.

[kuldi1000]

He looks deep, with eyes that blaze, but much of what he says rests on how he says it. His poetic use of words is evocative, repetitive like a zen poem or parts of the fusa Arabic of the Quran. Dunn Scotus is there: and he ws viewed as a 'dunce' by scholastics. Can a poet be fascist, why not? A Nazi is different. But if a philosopher can be a Maoist (Sarte) then he/she can hv political ideas. He is fresh; a thinker. Heil Heidegger!

[clappingtree]

Did something (anything) in Heidegger's philosophy somehow lead him to believe that he should support the Nazis?

[soundmuseum99]

It is possible to be a terrible person or simply a dolt while simultaneously being a great artist or philosopher. I highly recommend reading Rorty on Heidegger, I think he spells out how one can take the thought and put it to use without endorsing the life.

[formless777]

Hannah Arendt was right to bring Heidegger in from the cold, not because of his actions, but because his philosophical thought was very original, which in itself is a rarity. As to Heidegger being a Nazi, just remember that when WW2 ended the Nazis became "US allies" against the Communist menace, so why apologize ? Did Werner Von Braun ?

[soundmuseum99]

I'm sympathetic to what you say, Heidegger deserves his place in the pantheon of philosophers, but the lack of an apology or acknowledgment that he was wrong is damning. It is easy to get caught up in a national hysteria, think about the run up to the Iraq war, but once the hysteria has past one should be able to step back and say, well, I got that one wrong, let's move on. So the man should be condemned but his philosophy doesn't tell us to be Nazis and should be read.

[formless777]

We are in accord I believe. Nicely put.

[aes229]

Praising Heidegger--an endorser of National Socialism--as one of the greatest philosophical minds of our time is a little like saying that one of the greatest medical doctors of the XX Century once thought HIV was the ultimate panacea (and then never recanted).

[PhilosophicalMedia]

That's how great his work is. Even though he was a Nazi, his work cannot be ignored. He was a Nazi early on and quit the party. Of course that does not absolve him as a person.

[eltonjohnfan109]

@PhilosophicalMedia didn't it just say he was a member of the party until it ceased to exist?

[TheRidiculousSublime]

@PhilosophicalMedia he NEVER quit the party. the man is a dog. a smart dog but still a dog.

[aes229]

Very important subject, his Nazi partisanship and the implications this has for our perception of the man. How perplexing that a prominent Jewish intellectual was so instrumental in his cultural rehabilitation. I think i would side with those who are skeptical of vesting Heidegger's work with too much reverence.

[PhilosophicalMedia]

He is one of the greats. His book Being and Time is one of the most influential philosophical works. Sartre would not have written Being and Nothingness (his best work) without Heidegger. To just write him off as a Nazi is to lose out. I also like his Jewish student Arendt. It's a shame he joined the Nazi party, but that is how it's.

[aes229]

But do you think his Nazi partisanship was casual or causal?

[LibertyWaxlips]

@aes229 Preaching and practicing are two different things? Now why is this so hard to comprehend?

[CptCrash21]

Thanks for posting this.

[PhilosophicalMedia]

You're welcome :)