Heidegger life and Philosophy 5 of 6

This documentary may not explicitly equate Heidegger's philosophy with that of Nazism, but you only need to look at some of the diatribe directed against Heidegger to realize that such works as these do have the power to prejudice people in a negative way. It is hardly what I would call a dispassionate - let alone a thoughtful - appraisal of a great thinker.

Must it be repeated forever - Heidegger's thought has neither political intention nor covert political implication. "Politics" thinks too grandly of itself : philosophy is simply about what is - it is not about who should rule or even what "we" should do. It does not have any action in mind. Any such reading of Heidegger's thought is the interpretation of a total moron.

Are you an angry Neo-Nazi?

This documentary doesn't pretend to be about Heidegger's philosophy as such. This is stated at the outset. What it is is an illumination of Heidegger's involvement with the Nazi Party. It doesn't pretend otherwise. On that point, the documentary does its job quite well.

Heidegger's philosophy is the truest and therefore the greatest - but is misrepresented here (insofar as it is really discussed at all, which it isn't).

The judgments of those who judged Heidegger is only as powerful as their capacity to judge - and they're all morons.

Heidegger's thought is not understood even today, except by a few. Those few know very well that it has nothing to do with "National Socialism" - or with politics at all.

For "is" read "are" - written in a rush.

It doesn't "illuminate" anything - it merely gives a biased view of Heidegger and his relationship with the NSP, on the basis of which it wants to make people despise and hate him so that one day they might utterly reject his philosophy - which is the greatest philosophy the earth has yet witnessed, and which is in no way or at any time political in its intentions. It has no intentions. If you had understood it you would understand that much already.

You're reading all sorts of things into this film. Its main subject is Heidegger's relationship to Nazism. Its main subject is not Heidegger's philosophy. Nowhere in the film is Heidegger's philosophy equated with Nazism or Nazism's ideals (unlike Neitzche, of course). Heidegger isn't "discredited" anywhere in the film. He was a flawed human being. That -- in and of itself -- doesn't detract from his philosophical writings.

I don't believe that we can understand Heidegger's involvement with the Nazi party until we understand the tendency of his thought - which would imply stepping outside of this kind of debate and directly into philosophy itself. This series of videos sets out to assassinate his character in a shameless fashion. I agree with you that it doesn't detract from his philosophy as such but it is all the same an attempt to do so and is very much not in the spirit of philosophy.

I agree that Heideggers philosophy is the greatest on earth. His work has inspired me and my choice of work for my own future. I personally believe that the ideas if presented by anyone would make them a truely great thinker we must also look at the effect his Nazism has on others prejuice towards even taking the work seroiusly. I havent read Mein Kamf but have encountered some of it and its utter rubbish. The fact that its written by Hitler does influence the reading of it.

No it doesn't do its job very well and I'm certainly not an angry Neo-Nazi, btw, but just an angry Heidegger reader (of over 20 years) who is sick to death of all the shallow interpretations of his thought which are STILL doing the rounds. The documentary is superficial and does not take everything into consideration. This really p*sses me off - and would continue to do so even if the accusations against him were later to be somehow verified. Talk about his THOUGHT for God's sake !