Heidegger sensed the shortcomings of traditional philosophy and developed his paradigm of Existenz to offset them. The promise of his approach continues to merit our serious attention. Yet this scrutiny must not be allowed to devolve into hagiography or uncritical devotion—constant temptations when one is confronted with a thinker of Heidegger’s singular talents. Heidegger believed his philosophy was able to capture and convey an experience of the “primordial” (das Ursprüngliche); as such, it was viscerally opposed to superficialities of modern thought. Yet he was often unable to explain why the primordial itself was valuable, or why it was intrinsically superior to the more contemporary philosophical approaches he deemed misguided. Providing “rational accounts” of his positions and preferences was never Heidegger’s forte. Despite its merits, his approach, too, possesses distinct limitations. Too often, it glorifies “immemorial experiences” and “unreason.” It remains suffused with an antidemocratic sensibility that Heidegger himself perversely viewed as a badge of distinction. All of these prejudices played a role in his delusional political misstep of 1933. His supporters—on the whole, an adulatory lot—have yet to disentangle the intellectual threads that precipitated his Nazi involvement. Until they do, their attempts to perpetuate his legacy will remain afflicted by many of the same oversights and conceptual imbalances. Thus, like a Greek tragedy—though on a smaller scale—the sins of the father will be visited upon the daughters and sons.
To translate into Standard American English: Heidegger’s thinking was sheer, unalloyed bullshit (Reines Scheisse, to coin a Germanic logical term, in keeping with Heidegger’s notion that German was so very superior at expressing thought) and his students were all condemned to making non-sensical hash of things as a result of their love for him.
This admiration, a kind of mind-spell slavery, apparently came form the charismatic manner in which he delivered his lectures. Heidegger was famous as a great thinker before he even published anything, famous as a great thinker on the strength of… his performance. In this, he was like some other great windbags we could name; and his students, all uncommonly intelligent men and women, have gone on to show that great intelligence and extensive scholarship is no defense against pure, unalloyed Unsinn.
Richard Wolin, Heidegger’s Children: Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Hans Jonas, and Herbert Marcuse
Oltre Mare 